Shefali Verma’s life story is more thrilling than a movie! At the start, her name was not even on India’s World Cup squad. However, fate was on her side. When in-form opener Priya Rawat got injured in the final league match, Shefali got the chance to join the World Cup squad. She couldn’t shine in the semi-final against Australia, but she seemed to have saved her best for the final. With a career-best 87 runs against South Africa and later taking two crucial wickets, Shefali guided India to their first-ever Women’s Cricket World Cup title.
On 2nd November, at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai, India defeated South Africa by 52 runs in the final of the Women’s ODI World Cup, becoming World Champions for the first time. Shefali Verma was named Player of the Match for her 87 runs off 78 balls and two wickets. Despite a magnificent 101-run innings from Laura Wolvaardt, it wasn’t enough to bring the title to the Proteas.
Shefali made her international cricket debut at just 16 years old. Known for her aggressive batting, she was once dropped from the selectors’ list due to a lack of consistency in 50-over cricket. However, it seems that fate had a different plan for her. Due to Priya Rawat’s injury, Shefali was brought back into the squad.
In the final, Shefali played her career-best innings, which helped India clinch their first World Cup title. Overnight, she became a new hero in the cricket world. Shefali said, “I had always believed from the beginning—God sent me here to do something good, and today it has been proven. The time was tough, but I kept faith in myself. If I stayed calm, I knew I could achieve everything.”
Shefali has carved out her place as a cricketer after overcoming many obstacles. Her life story is one of struggle and unyielding determination. Coming from a conservative family in Haryana, Shefali played in a boys’ tournament at the age of 9, cutting her hair short to blend in. In a 2020 interview, Shefali recalled, “I told my father that my brother was ill, so I would play in his place. I even wrote his name on the jersey. I played and was named Player of the Match and Series.”
Shefali made her debut for the national team in 2019. Right after her debut, she broke Sachin Tendulkar’s 30-year-old record by becoming the youngest Indian to score an international half-century. Later, she became the first Indian cricketer to represent the country at the youngest age across all three formats (Test, ODI, and T20). In 2023, she captained India’s Under-19 Women’s team to win the inaugural Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup.
Her father, Sanjeev Verma, runs a jewellery store in Rohtak, while her mother, Praveen Bala, is a homemaker. Shefali has an older brother, Sahil Verma, and a younger sister, Nancy Verma. Her first coach and biggest supporter is her father. The family went through tough times when her father was deceived by someone who promised him a job, but in reality, took all of their money.
Despite these setbacks, Shefali never let anything deter her from pursuing her passion for cricket. Even though she fell behind in academics while playing cricket, she never gave up. She studied at St. Paul’s School and Mandeep Senior Secondary School in Rohtak. Although she failed her Class 10 exams in 2019, she passed the following year with 52% marks from the Haryana Open School.
Just like in the World Cup final, Shefali scored 80% in her 12th-grade CBSE exams, including an impressive 93 in English out of 100! When she shared her results on Instagram, it went viral within moments. Despite the selectors initially not including her in the squad, Shefali once again proved that she can deliver her best performance when it matters most.