The metamorphosis woman – third time could be a charm for Shafali

Cliff Notes – The metamorphosis woman – third time could be a charm for Shafali

• Shafali Verma, no longer a teenager, has evolved from a T20I specialist to a more consistent performer in longer formats, showcasing her ability to build innings effectively.
• After a period of exclusion from the T20I side, she excelled in domestic competitions, leading her teams in run-scoring and demonstrating improved temperament at the crease.
• With her recent performances in the WPL and domestic tournaments, Shafali’s return to the T20I squad positions her as a key player ahead of the upcoming ODI World Cup.

The metamorphosis woman – third time could be a charm for Shafali

This will be Shafali Verma’s third tour of England, but a lot has changed since the previous ones. For starters, she is not a teenager anymore.

When Shafali first toured England for the multi-format series in 2021, she was only a T20I cricketer. She made her debut in ODIs and Test cricket on that tour. Around the time of the England tour – for the Commonwealth Games followed by the bilateral series – in 2022, India were happy with the high-impact knocks she produced despite her inconsistency. It was a risk-versus-reward trade-off that worked for both India and Shafali.

Cut to mid-2025, and Shafali has just earned a recall to the T20I side and is still out of favour in ODIs in a home World Cup year. After India crashed out in the league stage of the T20 World Cup 2024, Shafali’s place in the team seemed untenable. Not that India found other batters who could attack from get-go like she could – there aren’t many who can do it anywhere in the world, let alone in India. She was dropped anyway.

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In hindsight, the timing of her exclusion perhaps worked well for Shafali, in that she was able to play the whole of the 50-over domestic competitions. She captained Haryana to a quarter-final finish in the Senior Women’s One Day Trophy and topped the run-scoring charts – 527 runs at an average above 75 and a strike rate of 152.31. Only one other batter (Kiran Navgire) batted at a higher strike rate in the entire competition, but she scored only 116.

Shafali then played the Senior Women’s One Day Challenger Trophy, a competition in which best performers in the one-dayers are picked by the national selectors. She topped the charts there, too, as captain of Team A – 414 runs at an average of 82.80 and a strike rate of 145.26. She had scored close to 200 runs more than the next best, and no one else scored at a higher pace in the competition.

In WPL 2025, Shafali was the leading run-scorer for runners-up Delhi Capitals (DC) – and fourth-best overall – and she could no longer be left out of India’s T20I side. That India played only one T20I series since her axing did not matter, they have their premier opener back as the road to the 2026 T20 World Cup starts.

But what has changed in Shafali’s game in the intervening period? How is she scoring with such regularity, which she couldn’t earlier?

“She has worked on keeping herself cool,” DC assistant coach Hemlata Kala told ESPNcricinfo. “In the WPL, she tried to play longer innings and not getting out inside the powerplay.

“Everyone said she only bats for 10-15 overs [in one-day cricket]. But she batted for longer in [the domestic] one-dayers, struck back-to-back hundreds. Even in multi-day (Senior Women’s Multi-Day Challenger Trophy) she played well. She has now consistently started playing longer innings. It is not that she didn’t do it before – she has hit 130-140 in Under-23 cricket. She has the ability, but in T20s she tries to make best use of the powerplay.”

Former India international Kala was the chief selector when Shafali, aged 15, made her international debut. Apart from being with DC, Kala was also part of the coaching staff for teams in the one-day and multi-day Challenger Trophy and witnessed the damage Shafali could inflict as an opposition player.

“I keep telling her, no one has the mindset she has – of hitting sixes from ball one,” Kala said. “Whenever I talk to her, I tell her, ‘don’t leave your game’. Her power game is natural, no one hits sixes at will like her in the women’s game. I told her to not leave behind the qualities that have brought her here. She is a different cricketer, I selected her for the first time based on that.”

Pratika Rawal and Harleen Deol put on a steady stand to take India home SLC

Consciously, though, Kala also instilled in Shafali the importance of rotating strike and not getting bogged down while going for big hits. She has worked on finding gaps when the field spreads.

“As you all know, my starts are good but building an innings has been an issue,” Shafali had said earlier this year. “But now, I am focusing on how to get those singles, how to build the innings, how to do well for the team.”

Some of that was on display in the WPL, where she did not seem desperate to power deliveries away. She showed restraint even in the powerplay. But she did not let it affect her overall strike rate (152.76 in 2025 vs 156.85 in 2024) much.

The five-match T20I series in England could be Shafali’s way back into the ODI side. After the three games in England, India have one more series before the World Cup – a three-ODI series against Australia at home. Whether Shafali makes it there and what the implications on the other top-order batters – Pratika Rawal has been the ODI opener and Harleen Deol the No. 3 – is anybody’s guess.

Third time could indeed be a charm for Shafali.