God has sent me to do something good: Shafali

NAVI MUMBAI: The last thing that Shafali Verma wanted was an in-form Pratika Rawal getting injured but she feels that it indeed had to be divine intervention which would see her getting pitchforked into the Indian playing eleven in a World Cup semi-final against Australia after not even being a part of the official reserves let alone the squad proper.

Shafali was leading Haryana in National Women’s T20 when she was summoned from Surat to Mumbai on SOS after Rawal sustained a hairline fracture on her ankle while fielding in the last group league game against Bangladesh.

“What happened with Pratika, as a sportsperson, it wasn’t a good thing. No one wants any sportsperson to sustain such an injury. But God has sent me here to do something good,” Shafali told mediapersons ahead of the marquee semi-final clash against Australia.

Shafali had hit a 24-ball 55 in her last outing for Haryana and also had a string of good scores for India A in its recent tour to Australia.

While her record in WODIs is modest -- an average of 23 across 29 games and only four half-centuries, the big stage isn’t new for the 21-year-old, who had played the T20 World Cup final in Australia back in 2020.

“I was playing domestic (cricket) and I was in a very good touch and talking about the semifinals, it’s not like it’s something new for me because I have played in the semifinals before It depends how I keep myself clear mentally and keep giving myself confidence. I have played in semifinals before,” she said.

Shafali is still trying to get a grip of 50 over format which doesn’t come to her as easily as the T20 where she enjoys a strike-rate of 131 and has played 90 games for the national team.

“I was playing T20s but as a batter, it’s not that easy to switch. But we had a practice session today (Wednesday) as well as yesterday (Tuesday). I tried to stay calm while batting. I tried to play good balls along the ground and those that were in my range, I tried to hit them well.

“I have had long batting sessions in the last two days and I felt great knowing I did all that I was trying to do,” she added.