WPL 2024: "Shafali Verma Needs To Learn.."- Delhi Capitals' Head Coach

Delhi Capitals’ (DC) head coach in the Women’s Premier League, Jonathan Batty reckons Indian opener Shafali Verma should add strike rotation to her arsenal in order to achieve the success that she is made for. Batty highlighted how Shafali Verma fails to convert her strong starts into big scores and feels she needs to learn the art of taking singles and doubles as well alongside all the boundary-hitting.

Jonathan Batty shed light on the importance of keeping the scoreboard moving. He said, “If you look at the very best batters in the world. They are the ones who are excellent in the powerplay and will maximise the two fielders outside the 30 yards. But once the restriction is lifted, you obviously have to keep the scoreboard moving in that middle over.”

“That’s the difference between a good batter making a good 40 or 50 to a great who is scoring match-winning 80s or even a hundred. It is the 80s and 100s which really takes the game away from the opposition.”

He talked about Shafali’s age and said that she is still learning, adding, “You have to remember Shafali is still so young still. She is learning all the time. By forcing her to change her game, we don’t want to lose her exciting strokeplay because that’s her super strength. But she will have to make those little adjustments in her game because the more runs she will score, the higher the chances for her team to win the match.”

Shafali Verma Can Learn A lot from Meg Lanning, Says Jonathan Betty

Shafali Verma alongside skipper Meg Lanning formed arguably the best opening pair of WPL 2023, taking the Delhi Capitals to the final. Batty believes that Shafali Verma can benefit a lot in the company of the former Australian skipper and can learn a lot from her experience. This will help the young batter to prosper as a cricketer.

On this, he stated, “What I have seen in the WPL last year is that Shafali could go and become one of the best players in international cricket. Someone like Meg has played for so long and has done so much, if Shafali can learn a little bit from her, and pick up a few things from her experience, she will benefit massively from it. It was great to see the way Shafali played against England the other night. Her game will keep on moving forward.”

Shafali Verma scored 52 off 42 balls in the first T20I against England in the ongoing T20I series between India Women and England Women. The innings Shafali played probably confirmed the issue that Batty tried to underline. She relies heavily on boundaries and this impacts her confidence as the number of dot balls increases if a batter doesn’t look for ones and twos.

The same issue has been seen with Suryakumar Yadav in ODIs and it is one of the problems that needs to be solved immediately. Singles and doubles are a very important part of a batter’s arsenal. Players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are today what they are because of their ability to play big innings mixing boundary-hitting and running between the wickets.