Maiden overs: Unfulfilled dreams and success stories

By Snehal Pradhan

The fourth T20I between India and South Africa showed us why India should be dominating world cricket. It’s a country of a billion people, with millions of cricketing dreams in hundreds of thousands of homes. Only eleven of those dreams touch reality at any given point in time; the rest end up with broken hearts, sleepless nights, and harsh realities.

But those broken dreams can fuel the next generation, can give birth India’s new stars, and that’s what we saw on Tuesday (October 1) at the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium in Surat. Shafali Verma, all of 15 years of age, smashed and slashed her way to an impressive 46 off 33 balls, on a pitch where such free-flowing strokeplay should not have been possible. Her innings was as watchable as it was charmed — she was dropped twice, and looked uncomfortable to start with — but more importantly it showed the embarrassment of riches of talent India possess.


Because like so many of her teammates, Shafali is the daughter of a father who wanted to play for India, but couldn’t.

Sanjeev Verma owns a jewellery store in Rohtak, Haryana. Speaking to this writer a few months ago, he described how he played club cricket competitively but never found the avenues to proceed.

And so he herded all three of his children, two of them girls, to the cricket pitch. It is his middle child, Shafali, who has found her fit in the national team.

Far from Rohtak, Shafali showed just why she has been fast-tracked into India colours after grabbing attention with a cameo in the Women’s IPL T20 Challenge. Always searching for the full length that she can get under, she was initially pegged back by the pace of Shabnim Ismail, even rattled on the grill once. A mishit was dropped, giving her a life on just 5, but when she got the ball in her half she lofted over the infield effortlessly.

Her full range was on display when the spinners came on: a flowing cover drive to a faster ball was followed by a swiped full-toss that was deposited 15 yards behind the 60-yard boundary. And when presented with a short ball, she beat the field with acut boasting not just power, but proper footwork.

All these attributes have been honed under her father’s gaze. Sanjeev developed Shafali’s upper body strength in early morning sessions at a nearby ground — used by the police force for drills — using homespun methods like flipping tractor tyres and spinning a chaff-cutter. He ingrained the aggressive mindset by telling her to target a strike rate of 150, not 80 or even 100. “You have to have three shots for every ball, that’s what I told her,” he said. “One-[wo]man army banna hai. (You have to be a one-[wo]man army)” That was what it felt like in Surat where she outscored her senior partner Smriti Mandhana, giving India their first fifty-run opening partnership in 10 matches. Mandhana contributed just 13. The foundation set India up for a thumping 51-run win, helping them to their first T20I series win in three attempts this year. And while Verma’s game is far from watertight, it showed world-class potential, a rough diamond which will be polished in the time to come.

It also highlighted how much potential exists for India to consistently unearth such talent. Most female cricketers are introduced to the game through an elder male family member; Mandhana’s father Srinivas played cricket, and she copied her elder brother Shravan’s left-handedness.

The first piece of clothing Harmandar Singh bought infant Harmanpreet was a shirt with ‘Good Batting’ written on it. And Deepti Sharma’a talent was discovered when she followed her brother to a cricket field. In a country where most men are already exposed to the game, and many have unfulfilled dreams in the sport, their daughters and sisters are the perfect target audience, already primed, waiting to be tapped.

All three of the families above played their cricket outside major cities, and that’s where the talent lies. That’s where you will find the next Shafali Verma, the solutions to India’s wonky middle-order. A father, somewhere in rural India, is watching this series and thinking, ‘I want my daughter to do that’. And we may not have to wait too long; Sanjeev’s youngest daughter, just 7, is already trying to imitate her elder sister. She bats left-handed though.