'Father had a heart attack 2 days before. Hid the news from him': Shafali Verma's painful revelation over being dropped

In November last year, India's star women's batter, Shafali Verma, faced a setback when she was dropped from the team for the Australia tour. Shafali endured a series of inconsistent performances in international cricket; she had failed to register a single half-century across her last 10 innings, with the highest score of 43 during a T20 World Cup match against Sri Lanka. Shafali Verma during 2024 Women's T20 World Cup(HT_PRINT)

The ODI series against New Zealand was her last outing for India, where she registered scores of 33, 11, and 12. Pratika Rawal, who replaced Shafali as the opening batter in ODIs, has since enjoyed stellar outings in six matches, scoring a century and three half-centuries already.

Shafali, however, has now revealed that being dropped from the Indian team wasn't the only setback she endured. In an interview with Indian Express, Shafali revealed her father, Sanjeev Verma, suffered a heart attack merely two days before the squad announcement. She chose to shield her father from the news during his recovery.

“It’s not easy to get over it. I didn’t want to reveal 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 told the newspaper.

Once her father learned about her exclusion, he wasted no time helping his daughter refocus on her game despite undergoing recovery.

“Father knows everything. Sometimes as kids even we forget our strengths, but they don’t forget,” Shafali said. “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 she played after being dropped, Shafali scored a staggering 527 and 414 runs in 12 matches, with three centuries and five fifties. Her strike rates—152.31 and 145.26—underscore her dominance at this level.

More importantly, Shafali has worked on refining her game and fitness.

“The constant work is on areas like when deliveries don’t come to my strengths, how do I take singles, how do I rotate strike, how do I build my innings. Everyone knows my strengths, but the constant goal is to mentally get smarter by learning how to build an innings better,” she added.

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