It may not work but Shafali Verma must play against Australia

Picture this: the Indian women’s cricket team find themselves facing an indomitable opponent. This rival, despite enduring several injuries, has managed to maintain its intensity and at the risk of sounding rhetorical, has looked invincible.

India, though, aren’t taking no for an answer. They know how tough their task will be but they also know that they can, if all of their components work together, match the opposition’s strength.

The game begins and India, who are batting first, adopt a slightly cautious approach. There are several pretty cover drives and leg-side whips. Yet, the total only crawls along at a middling rate, meaning that they ultimately end up with a par score. At the half-way mark, India are absolutely elated because they have kept their more illustrious foes at bay for long stretches. And, have runs on the board.

As time passes, however, it becomes increasingly clear that India, despite their perception, were never really in the game because, well, their rivals don’t just hunt down the target comfortably. They do so while illustrating how far the Women In Blue were from even competing.

Hypothetically, this seems like the worst possible outcome for India, especially since their Women’s World Cup hopes hang in the balance post a characteristically shoddy defeat to England. In reality, though, this is something that could well happen on March 19, 2022, against Australia, especially if they aren’t brave enough.

Over the past couple of years, a lot has been made of India’s archaic batting approach in WODIs. Rightly so, too. They have one of the worst records when batting first in the 50-over format since 2020 and have been reluctant to risk a defeat to secure victory. So much so that wins have (irrespective of when they have batted) been hard to come by.

During that sequence, they have also not persisted with Shafali Verma – a batter who can be inconsistent at times but someone who can single-handedly win games of cricket. They have tried different combinations at the top but, with another listless display against England, the time is perhaps right to fall back on Shafali and give her a slightly longer rope than usual.

Shafali Verma has not set the ODI stage alight so far

The counter-argument to that would be that Shafali has simply not gotten going in ODI cricket. At the moment, she averages 21.66 and strikes at 73.86 – numbers that aren’t befitting of a player of her caliber and talent.

There is also a school of thought suggesting that she doesn’t have enough gears to chop and change during an ODI innings, meaning that she is either too aggressive or gets too bogged down before throwing her wicket away. But all that is part of her development.

There will be days when Shafali looks like anything but an international cricketer. But there will also be days when she looks like she was always born to play international cricket. And that is probably the trade-off India need to contemplate as well.

As things stand, India have seemed inclined to open with Smriti Mandhana and Yastika Bhatia. Smriti is one of the premier batters on the planet and, hence, her spot in the team is set in stone. Yastika, on recent form, perhaps pips Shafali. Yet, when considering what kind of role India want her to perform, Shafali might fit the bill better.

Against New Zealand, Yastika scratched to 28 off 59 balls before being dismissed in tame fashion. That innings, by the way, came alongside Mithali Raj, meaning that Yastika, if anything, had to be a lot more proactive than usual. But she wasn’t able to.

A match later, the youngster came out all guns blazing against the West Indies and put them to the sword in the power play. She tried it against England, too, but could only muster eight runs before being dismissed by Anya Shrubsole.

Her past record, though, suggests she might not be fancying the enforcer gig too much. Throughout her List A career, she has struck at a tick under 55 (54.88 to be precise) and only averages 26.81. Thus, it could be derived that she consumes too many deliveries but isn’t able to score as many runs as her team wants.

In contrast, Shafali, who has a similar List A average (29.16) rattles along at a strike rate of 106.38, indicating that she takes games away from the opposition when she gets going. Additionally, Shafali has three 50s and a hundred to her name, meaning that she knows how to convert her starts too.

Moreover, this Indian batting line-up is currently stacked with anchors. Mithali, irrespective of her batting position, bats the same way. Smriti also takes a bit of time to get going, with Deepti Sharma also classified as an accumulator rather than an aggressor. In such a scenario, the onus suddenly falls on Harmanpreet Kaur and Richa Ghosh to increase the tempo – something they are capable of doing but also something that will not come off every time.

The most important bit, though, is that India, in order to overcome the likes of Australia and South Africa simply need more firepower. A pretty essay of 240 runs will not win them games. They need to risk getting reduced to 10/2 in the powerplay if the other possible outcome is 60/0 and a potential score in excess of 300.

Even against the West Indies, India coasted to victory because they had an enormous total on the board. Had they only scored 240-250, West Indies wouldn’t have felt the pinch to continue scoring and wouldn’t have wilted the way they did.

At the moment, there are a lot of things that need to be corrected vis-à-vis the mindset and the approach of the Indian women’s cricket team in ODI cricket. One of those is the lack of clarity and belief they have placed in a special talent like Shafali, who will, lest we forget, produce unremarkable performances but will always remain capable of upstaging even a team like the Southern Stars.

From that perspective alone, it is imperative that she plays against Australia on March 19, 2022. It might not work out. After all, nothing in cricket (or for that matter any sport) comes with a guarantee. Yet, it is a punt India must simply take.

Remember that hypothetical scenario that played out where India, despite their perception of competing, never actually competed? Well, that could play out again unless they release the handbrake and let Shafali be what she can be.

It comes with an obvious risk. But no massive pay-off happens without a gamble, does it?