India as a nation is obsessed with cricket, anything that happens between the 22 yards brings about debates and analysis. While the men’s game has always been the main talking point, the women’s team which has become one of the best in the world is also looked at with passion. The Indian women’s team or shall we call it the golden generation has a lot of talents that are coming to the fore. one of them is the young gem who goes by the name Shafali Varma. The 17 year old has taken to the imagination of the Indian cricket crazy fans as the next big thing in world cricket. The success the youngster has had to begin her career hasn’t been easy and wasn’t overnight.
Working on the technique
Shafali Varma was just 15 when she made her international debut for India. It was in a women’s T20 game against South Africa in 2019 at Surat. Varma was out for a four ball duck on her debut. Since then she has played 22 T20 games for India and scored 617 runs. She boasts a strike rate of 148 with 3 half centuries. One of the early changes she made to her technique was that she now takes a more middle and leg stump guard rather than the off and middle which she had when she made her debut for India. Being a front foot player she loves facing the fast bowlers. She loves to strike boundaries against the quicker bowlers.
The changes have the desired result
Once she worked on her shortcomings, the results were there to see. One of the biggest problems was her trigger movements with the bat. She had changed it early in 2020 where the change in her trigger movements made her a more fluid player. Her head movements got better and her tendency to use the top half of the bat made stroke playing more easy for her. She started to drive the ball much better with this renewed technical change. When she began her T20 career her Strike rate was 180 while playing the drives but has shot up to 237. Her shot control which was previously 76
% while playing the drive also went up to 89%. Even in the average department against the drive, from a mere 16 in 2019 e average shot up to 55 post 2020.
Firming up on the shot ball issues and becoming better against spin
One of the nemesis for Indian batsmen/women has been the issues against the short ball. Making her debut aged 15 the youngster too had issues against the rising delivery. With her new found technique she found it easy to play her strokes against the rising delivery. Varma started to play the short ball better and also used the pull shot to good effect. Against spinners too when she started in 2019 her numbers weren’t that great. She scored just 67 runs from the 62 balls faced against spin with an attack percentage of 48. Her strike rate was a meager 108 with an average of 22, but ever since the change the numbers tell a different story. Since 2020 she has become more aggressive against the spinners. Her attack percentage is now 71 while her strike rate has shot up to 142. In the powerplay overs she has strike rate of over 160 against spin. But post the powerplay she strikes around 101 which is one where area where has to improve.
Shafali Varma made a great start to her test career scoring 159 runs in the only test versus England. With age and time on her side she will develop the game even more. For now she is a delight to watch and there are huge hopes resting on her young shoulder as far as Indian cricket is concerned.