Former India women's coach WV Raman is happy with the maiden call-up of Shafali Verma into India's Test squad for the England tour which will be played in June-July. He called it a good move to include a destructive batter and cited the example of Prithvi Shaw.
Raman, speaking to India Today Consulting Editor, Sports, Boria Majumdar on Sports Today, said he would always back a batter who can destroy the opposition in an hour of play. Verma is known for her attacking batting and she has proven her ability against quality bowling units.
"If a batter, it doesn't matter to me what the name is, if a batter goes on to psychologically demoralize the opposition bowlers in the first 45 minutes, 1 hour, I would take that any day and in any format," Raman said.
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"Because what is it that you're looking at in a four-day match or a Test match? Sometimes there could be a bit of reluctance to bat first in a Test match for various reasons, I am not saying people don't have the courage, but people can sometimes be tentative.
"It's normal. But if you have somebody on your side who can go out there it doesn't matter to them what the conditions are and who the opposition is, they would back themselves and go after the bowling and demoralize them."
Raman further talked about the benefit of having an attacking batter in the side and pointed out how Shaw could take away the match from the opposition in a very short passage of play.
"Like I saw Prithvi Shaw doing that in the u-19 side, he would go there and get a 70-80 in no time. By the time he got out or you had drinks break, you suddenly see the scoreboard close to 90 or 100. The issue is settled straightaway.
"Imagine, it provides advantages in every respect. It not just makes it discomforting for the opposition camp but also provides great confidence to the batters going next in your side. What more do you need? It's priceless!", he added.
The one-off Test between India and England will be followed by 3 ODIs and as many T20Is. The tour will conclude on July 15 in Chelmsford.
India’s Senior Women squad for Test & ODI: Mithali Raj (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Punam Raut, Priya Punia, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Sneh Rana, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Indrani Roy (wicket-keeper), Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Arundhati Reddy, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav.
(With Sports Today Inputs)
