India Women batter Shafali Verma has revealed that she had worked on every aspect of her batting during the COVID-29 enforced break while saying the last year was very challenging.
She is playing for India after one year gap due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the ongoing three-match T20I series against South Africa Women.
In the first game, she could only face 22 balls for 23 runs, but improved in the second T20I having got confidence from the first game and scored 47 runs off 31 balls.
Shafali and Richa Ghosh (44* off just 26 balls) helped India post a total of 158/4 against South Africa. In reply, Lizelle Lee and Laura Wolvaardt batted brilliantly and scored 70 and 53 respectively, as South Africa Women chased down the target in 20 overs after losing four wickets on Sunday (March 21).
After India Women’s six-wicket loss in the second T20I against South Africa, the youngster said she wanted to perform to the best of her ability and help her team to post a big total.
Shafali said at the virtual press conference in Lucknow on Sunday, “When I was batting today, the only thing on my mind was to perform to the best of my ability. I knew if I stay at the crease, I will help the team to get a good total. I was playing my natural game. When we saw the wicket, we knew that we can score 150-160, and our batters did just that.”
She added, “The wicket was nice to bat on, when Harleen Deol came out, our plan was to rotate the strike and dispatch the loose balls for boundaries. We just wanted the team to get a big total. I am playing after one year, I got confidence after playing the first T20I, the past year was quite a challenge.”
On the aspects she worked on during COVID-19 lockdown, Shafali said: “During the lockdown, I did hard work and I worked on to be selective in picking balls which I need to go after. I improved on rotating the strike and I worked on taking singles and doubles. I worked on both front foot and back foot.”
She signed off by saying, “When I am batting, I always think about dispatching the loose balls for boundaries. If I find any ball in my area, I try to smash it. During the lockdown, I was also trying to prepare for the ODIs so I worked on playing grounded shots. Misfielding can happen in a match, we will learn from this experience.”
(With ANI Inputs)
