How many wickets Shafali Verma has picked in T20Is?

In T20I cricket, Shafali Verma has picked up 16 wickets in 27 innings at an average of 20.87 and a fine economy rate of 6.50, with the best bowling figures of 3/15 in an innings.

How many runs Shafali Verma has scored in T20Is?

In the T20Is, India’s opener, Shafali Verma, has collected 2867 runs in 109 innings at an average of 27.83 and a blistering strike rate of 136.45, with 18 fifties at the best score of 81 runs.

Which record Shafali Verma holds in Women’s Test matches?

In Women’s Test matches, Shafali Verma holds the record for the fastest double century when he smashed 205 runs off just 194 balls, which came against South Africa.

Does Shafali Verma have any record in World Cups?

Shafali Verma became the youngest batter to score a half-century in an ODI World Cup final. She also led the Indian side to the inaugural 2023 U-19 Women’s T20 WC victory in South Africa.

Shafali Verma's rise as India's crisis all-rounder

Just moments after Pratika Rawal suffered a severe right-ankle sprain and fracture during the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup group-stage game against Bangladesh and was ruled out of the semi-final and the final of the competition, every Indian player was on the same page to bring back Shafali Verma, who wasn’t part of the initial 15-member squad.

Verma didn’t even make the reserves. When the squad was announced, many raised their eyebrows at how the selectors could leave a player with the potential of a serious impact, thanks to her fearless stroke play. But destiny had the youngster lift the trophy in Navi Mumbai.

When captain Harmanpreet Kaur, coach Amol Muzumdar, and the selection committee decided to inject Shafali into the squad as a replacement, their primary aim perhaps was to get full value with the bat inside the powerplay against Australia in the semifinal. Even heading into the final against South Africa, the wish remained the same.

But was there an expectation of getting her bowling contribution? Not much, for sure. However, that was Shafali’s evening as she used her part-time off-spin to pick the two vital wickets of Sune Luus and Marizanne Kapp, having smashed 87 runs off just 78 balls in the first innings to shoulder India to 298/7 in their allotted 50 overs.

That was perhaps the game that pushed Shafali to continue her bowling practice in the nets along with the powerful shots. During the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 encounter against the same South Africa, Harmanpreet threw the ball to Shafali to open the bowling in their 158-run defense.

And her four overs ended up with fine figures of 1/22, including the wicket of Tazmin Brits for 40 runs. She could have also turned the game on its head with the wicket of Kapp in a critical situation had Radha Yadav grabbed the simple catch.

No plan B, no safety net — How Shafali Verma rewrote her cricket identity from the ground up

Shafali started playing the game to make her ‘papa’ proud. Her father, Sanjeev, gathered the money when he needed to be able to watch his daughter live with the help of the well-wishers and the Haryana Cricket Association, having worked as a jewelry repairer in Rohtak, a conservative district in the north Indian state of Haryana.

There was a time before Shafali’s inclusion in the Indian side, when people used to blame him for ruining the life of her daughter by making her play because of the lack of expectation in girls to be in sports. Haryana is a state that, for long, has held the dubious distinction of having one of the highest rates of female feticides in the country.

And for the state to contribute to raising the number one women’s cricketers for India, Sanjeev deserves a lot of credit. In Lahli, Rohtak, in 2013, Sachin Tendulkar played his last first-class game at the Bansi Lal Stadium against Haryana, and Shafali fell in love with the master’s batting.

“When I first picked up the bat, I thought the only way to play was to whack the ball with zero technique. Since I was five-six, I had just been watching my brother bat and bowl leg-spin, or just used to be at his training sessions to collect the balls. When I actually started training, it felt different, but it certainly felt good.” Verma laughed during an interaction with ESPNcricinfo in 2020.

When Verma’s brother Sahil, the oldest of the three siblings, got ill during an under-12 all-boys local competition in Panipat, Verma, who was 10 by then, whispered the idea to her father that she could fill in for her brother.

Believe it or not, Verma ended up winning the ‘Player of the Match’ award and was named the Player of the Tournament. There was a small training set-up for the police recruits close to the Verma home, which later became the space for Sanjeev to help his son and daughter build their strength.

They would flip the tractor tyres 20-30 times in a session, turn the handle of a chaff cutter, add the heavy balls around the wrists, and flex all to make it a daily routine. The strength lay at the heart of her performance through the U-16, U-19, and U-23 levels for the state, Haryana, from 2013.

In 2018, Shafali experienced a breakout season, including a 56-ball 128 against Nagaland in the 2018-19 inter-state T20 competition, which put her on the selectors’ radar for the three-team Women’s T20 Challenge, which was once shaped in the Indian Premier League (IPL) model.

In just four months, she got the maiden call-up to India’s T20I side and made her debut against South Africa. She made her intentions clear with a terrific knock of 124 runs off 78 balls against Australia A, who had several bowlers with WBBL experience and some of the players who even played for Australia.

The batter who learned to bowl: How Shafali Verma became India's most surprising white-ball weapon

A lion’s share of the success Shafali got in the T20 World Cup 2020 came on the back of the freedom she got from the senior team-mates like captain Harmanpreet and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana as well as the head coach, WV Raman, who made a plea to the media not to go gaga over the kid, who was just 16 years by then.

Shafali finished the T20 WC 2020 as India’s leading run-getter. She smashed 163 runs in five innings at an average of 32.60 at a strike rate of 158.25, having recorded nine sixes and 18 boundaries in that progress.

“There is absolutely no baggage in her head, the kid that she is. On the other hand, she's also a very intelligent kid. She is at a stage where she is still trying to find herself, as to who she is as a person. She is just a kid; she is having a good time, she is enjoying herself, but she is on a journey to find herself both as a cricketer and as an individual.” Raman expressed to the press.

Even though the current 22-year-old slowly started to become the run machine for India in the white-ball formats, bowling wasn’t her primary choice. But she developed herself into a handy bowling option in the recent months, as her off-spin started to be used in key moments.

“It isn’t like that; I have never bowled before. Whenever I played domestic cricket for Haryana and even when I was captain, I always gave myself time to think about how I would execute if I got a chance to bowl for India.” She said in a press conference during the T20 World Cup 2026.

The golden arm in the final — How Shafali Verma saved India in the ODI World Cup 2025 Final

Looking at her journey since she burst onto the scene at 15 as India’s youngest T20I debutant, both male and female, it felt like fate had been catching up. The same audacity and ability to bend a game even before anyone could realize it. During the Women’s ODI World Cup 2025 final, she proved that again.

Shafali’s first delivery was a 95kph dart, with the second one teasing the batter with 84.2 kph. Sune Luss, who looked to work the ball a little fine, ended up chipping it straight back to the spinner as Shafali smiled even before the ball settled in her hands. The stadium erupted and soon echoed her name in chants.

In her very next over, she produced another magical delivery that spun back into Kapp, who edged it to the wicket-keeper, Richa Ghosh. The breakthrough shifted the momentum in the home side’s favor, along with the new belief of the players and the massive roar from the fans.

“It was a gut feeling. I thought it could be risky too, but at the same time, I was positive because she had shown confidence when we spoke to her. I didn't want to go back to the room later thinking, 'Why didn't I try?' because they were looking good. And when I gave her that over, and she got back-to-back breakthroughs.” The Indian captain revealed.

Shafali Verma’s career in a nutshell

Format	Inns	Runs	SR	Wkts	100s/50s	BBI
Tests	12	607	74.38	02	01/03	1/7
ODIs	32	745	85.24	03	00/05	2/36
T20Is	109	2867	136.45	16	00/18	3/15

What does Shafali Verma's all-round future mean for India Women's next World Cup cycle?

It’s always exciting for any captain to have several options with the ball, and if that comes from someone who is already a fine player with power-hitting and stroke play, it becomes an added advantage in the side. Shafali has walked into the same route in recent times.

Her growing contribution as a part-time off-spinner could make her one of the most vital and valuable multi-dimensional players for the blue brigade over the next four years. If she continues to develop himself into a dependable fifth or sixth bowling option, then the national side could field a more balanced XI without compromising their batting power.

Her off-spin offers the captain an extra option against the left-handed batters of the opposition, especially on the slow surfaces in the sub-continent. Shafali has also done really well in containing the runs if she doesn’t get the wickets. All in all, it will only be a rise for her individual growth and success for the team- not to mention a happy relief for the captain.