“My brother was supposed to play but he fell sick – I asked my father if I could play under his name,” Shafali Verma explains. With that began the story of India’s next cricket superstar, a remarkable tale in which a girl disguised herself as a boy simply so she could play the sport she loved.
Verma made history in November when, aged 15 years and 285 days, she smashed 73 off 49 balls against West Indies, becoming the youngest Indian cricketer to score a half‑century in internationals, breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s 30‑year‑old record of 59 against Pakistan in 1989. A somewhat neat turn of events given it was Tendulkar who sparked Verma’s fascination in and passion for cricket as a nine‑year‑old girl and after she had watched the “little master” play his last domestic first-class match for Mumbai in a Ranji Trophy encounter in Lahli, Rohtak, in 2013.
Growing up in Rohtak – a reserved, conservative state located 70km north of New Delhi – Verma was rejected from local cricket academies purely because of her gender. Refusing to be discouraged Verma, with the permission of her father, cut her hair so she would look like a boy and, therefore, be allowed to play cricket. And she shone doing so, being named ‘man of the series’ after coming in for, and pretending to be, her sick brother.
Verma has been on an upward trajectory ever since, making her Twenty20 international debut against South Africa in September 2019 aged 15 years and 239 days, and is fast becoming a key cog in India’s attempts to win a first World T20 title. The 10-team tournament begins in Australia on 21 February, with India facing the hosts in the opening game in Sydney.
Verma, who turned 16 at the end of last month, is still at school and last year missed her grade 10 exams due to cricketing commitments and having shone in the senior women’s interstate T20 tournament in 2018‑19, which included 128 off 56 balls in one innings, she was selected in the Women’s T20 Challenge. Playing for IPL Velocity, Verma received glowing praise from England’s Danni Wyatt, a Velocity teammate. “She is going to be a superstar,” Wyatt said. “She stood out for me in the nets from day one. When I heard she was only 15, I was like ‘wow’.”
Verma now has 324 runs from 14 T20 innings at a remarkable strike rate of 140.86 and one that outshines the career strike rate of the 2019 ICC Women’s Player of the Year Ellyse Perry (105.02). She has also risen above the England captain Heather Knight in the ICC Women’s T20 batting rankings.
India’s youngest debutant has developed a formidable opening partnership with the 2018 ICC Women’s Player of the Year Smriti Mandhana, who herself first appeared for India aged 16. The pair compiled India’s record T20 partnership of 143, against West Indies in November. Verma also top-scored with 69 off 35 balls during a 103‑run chase against the same opposition. Mandhana hit 30 from 28 balls.
India enter the World Cup with a formidable top order. Behind Verma and Mandhana there is Jemimah Rodrigues, who at the age of 19 has amassed nearly 1,000 T20 runs, and the captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who is among the top 10 all-time female T20 run-scorers.
India’s bowling is not great but also may not matter too much should they get it right with the bat, and no one more so than Verma. “She’s an amazing talent and just pure power,” said Cricket Australia’s high‑performance coach, Leah Poulton, after witnessing the teenager perform during a recent Tri-Series encounter. “It was really good to watch. I got into fan mode.”
