India Women Under-19 captain Shafali Verma celebrates after winning the U19 T20 World Cup final against England Women at the Senois Park in Potchefstroom on Sunday. | Photo credit: ANI
Not satisfied with Under-19 T20 World Cup victorybatting sensation Shafali Verma has already set her sights on repeating the feat with the senior women’s team in less than two weeks.
She will get her chance when the Women’s T20 World Cup begins on February 10 in South Africa, the same country where the country just won the inaugural U-19 World Tournament.
The 19-year-old Shafali has already established herself in the senior Indian team and will be looking to make the tour of South Africa even more memorable with another silverware.
“No, the big one,” said Shafali when asked if the Under-19 trophy was the only one she was hoping to bring back from South Africa.
“I am a person who focuses on the task at hand. When I entered the Under-19s, I just focused on winning the Under-19 Cup and we won it today (Sunday).
“I will take this winning confidence with me and try to win the Senior World Cup. I will try to forget it and join the senior setup and team in jail to win the World Cup,” he said. ICC
India won their maiden ICC women’s cricket title on Sunday as a group of highly talented youngsters beat England by seven wickets to win the inaugural U-19 World Cup.
Shafali-led Indian squad did what their seniors couldn’t by clearing the final hurdle at the global event.
India first bowled out England for 68 in 17.1 overs and then came back to chase down the modest target in 14 overs to win the coveted trophy.
Shafali was part of the India squad that fell to the final hurdle in the 2020 T20 World Cup, when Australia defeated the team by 85 runs in front of over 85,000 fans at the MCG.
She said she is still reeling from the loss.
“Melbourne was a very emotional day for me in that final game, we didn’t win the game,” Shafali recalled.
“When I joined the under-19 team, I was just thinking, ‘You know, we’ve got to win this cup.’ I’m just saying to all the girls, ‘We’ve got to win this cup, we’re here for the cup.’ “We lost the World Cup and those were tears of sadness. Today they were tears of joy because we got what we came here for.
“I tried to control it but I couldn’t. I will look at it as a big achievement and use it to learn more. I will try to score more runs for India and I will try to do that. “I will not be satisfied with the cup. This is just the beginning.”
