In November of the previous year, Shefali Verma, a prominent batter in India's women's cricket team, encountered a significant challenge when she was omitted from the squad for the tour of Australia. Her recent performances in international cricket have been marked by inconsistency, as she has not achieved a single half-century in her last ten innings, with her highest score being 43 in a T20 World Cup match against Sri Lanka.

The last series she played for India was against New Zealand, where she recorded scores of 33, 11, and 12. Pratika Rawal, who took over as the opening batter in ODIs, has since excelled in her role, amassing a century and three half-centuries in just six matches.

Shafali has now disclosed that her exclusion from the Indian team was not her only challenge. In an interview with the Indian Express, she shared that her father, Sanjeev Verma, experienced a heart attack just two days before the announcement of the squad. To protect her father during his recovery, she chose not to inform him of her situation.

“It’s not easy to get over it. I didn’t want to reveal it because my father had a heart attack about two days before I got dropped from the team. I hid the news from him till he got better. He was in the hospital. I told him a week later,” Shafali stated in the interview.

Once her father became aware of her exclusion, he promptly took steps to assist his daughter in regaining her focus on the sport, despite his recovery process.

“Father knows everything. Sometimes as kids even we forget our strengths, but they don’t forget,” Shafali remarked. “He reminded me of the workouts and drills from my childhood... These are my strengths, and sometimes you need to work on them to remember how good you are at them.”

Shafali regaining form

In the two domestic tournaments following her exclusion, Shafali amassed an impressive total of 527 and 414 runs across 12 matches, achieving three centuries and five half-centuries. Her strike rates of 152.31 and 145.26 highlight her exceptional performance at this level.

Furthermore, Shafali has dedicated herself to enhancing both her skills and physical fitness.

"My ongoing focus is on aspects such as how to secure singles when deliveries are not in my favour, how to rotate the strike effectively, and how to construct my innings. While my strengths are well-known, my continuous objective is to become mentally sharper by learning to build my innings more effectively," she remarked.

Read Also: Virat Kohli Asks Akash Deep: 'Do You Need a Bat?' Before His Game-Changing Performance

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