Smriti Mandhana, the swashbuckling opener of Indian women’s cricket team has finally got her partner in teen prodigy Shafali Verma who has been stealing the limelight in the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup by taking the pressure off her. The 23-year-old Mandhana, who has been a key player for the Indian team since long, said Verma is capable of filling her boots.
“I used to score a lot of our runs in the last two of three years, especially in the Powerplay, but now with Shafali coming in, she’s getting the runs in the way I do. It makes the team more balanced,” Mandhana said. “Shafali has been a huge positive coming into the T20 side. The way she’s going about her batting, it’s so easy to bat alongside her.”
Shafali Verma has already announced her calibre on the global stage. The 16-year-old has scored 68 runs in two games in this World Cup so far, including five sixes and seven fours, with a decent strike rate of 212.
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“I used to have a major role in Powerplays, but Shafali is getting the quick runs in those first overs now too. She’s made a huge impact and the team has become more balanced thanks to her,” said Smriti Mandhana, who also made her India debut in 2013 as a 16-year-old and missed the last game due to viral.
While talking about Thursday’s match against New Zealand, the flamboyant opener shared, “I don’t think we will be going into the game thinking about a total, but we will continue playing the way that is working for all of our batters.”
Meanwhile, veteran New Zealand pacer Lea Tahuhu is also impressed with the youngster Shafali Verma and said that she is looking forward to bowling at Verma.
“Personally, I love the thought of facing Verma. It makes me fire up a little bit more and I’m really looking forward to playing her,” said Tahuhu.
“I actually played her in the T20 Challenge in India last year and I know she’s not going to take a step back,” she said, referring to India’s IPL style T20 tournament which was played in Jaipur last year.
