Article
Shafali Verma One to Watch Over Next Few Years, Says Australia A Coach Leah Poulton
By Shruti - Jan 2, 2020 11:00 am
Views 65

Australia A coach Leah Poulton recently said that Shafali Verma made the coach as her fan during India A’s recent tour. Verma smashed a 78-ball 124 in an unofficial One Day match against Australia A last month in Brisbane.

Shafali Verma
Shafali Verma

“She’s just an amazing talent, she’s only 15 years old and she’s got so much power,” Poulton told cricket.com.au. “We’d seen a bit of footage leading in, she’s played a bit of cricket for India.”

“But when you watch footage of a player like that, it probably doesn’t do it justice because she’s actually got a really good presence at the crease. Even though she’s 15, she’s a tall girl, strong girl as well… when she walked out to bat, I thought, ‘that can’t be the 15-year-old’,” the coach added.

Read here: Justin Langer backs Tim Paine to Lead Australia Till 2021

Shafali Verma made her international debut last year in September and has played in 9 T20Is so far. In November 2019, she broke batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar’s record by becoming the youngest Indian to score an international half-century. Poulton further shared that it is Verma’s power game that made her different from other openers.

“She’s not your typical Indian opening bat. Over the years they’ve produced these opening bats with these amazing techniques and they’re really crafty, whereas she walked out there and she was just pure power. It was really good to watch, I did get into fan mode for a while there (during the century). She just had so much composure at the crease, she didn’t look fussed at all. She’s definitely going to be one to watch over the next few years,” Leah Poulton concluded.