Former India player Aakash Chopra has applauded star India opener Shafali Verma for her all-round match-winning performance in the Women’s World Cup 2025 final as well. He also added that the opener was destined to do so, as she wasn’t even part of the Indian squad as well as reserves, before coming in as an injury replacement, and hadn’t
scored a fifty in ODIs for almost three-and-a-half years as well. Notably, Shafali scored 87 runs off 78 deliveries.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “When we came to bat, the Player of the Match came, the one who had something written in her destiny. That’s Shafali Verma. She wasn’t selected in the team. She wasn’t even in the standbys. If someone’s name is not there in the team and the standbys, what are their chances of playing, but she played.”

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“She batted tremendously and also picked up two wickets, and those were the crucial wickets. It was written somewhere above. She scored a half-century in ODIs after three-and-a-half years. She wasn’t even part of the team for the last one year, and when Pratika Rawal was playing, she was playing so well that she (Shafali) wasn’t being remembered,” he further added.

However, Aakash Chopra also praised Deepti Sharma for scoring a responsible fifty in the Women’s World Cup 2025 final as well.

“Deepti Sharma came and played at a run-a-ball. I felt Deepti could have played a little faster, but Deepti did whatever Deepti does. Deepti absorbed the pressure. She has done this throughout the tournament. She started and ended the tournament with a half-century. India were struggling then and here also they got stuck once in the middle, but Deepti was there. She picked up a five-wicket haul. First woman to do that in a World Cup final, someone who picked up five wickets and scored a half-century as well. She also had a throw, and this is how Deepti started,” Aakash Chopra concluded.