Shafali Verma became the fifth Indian women cricketer to get the NOC for the inaugural edition of The Hundred. Verma would be part of the Sophie Devine-led Birmingham Phoenix. This comes as a major boost for women’s cricket in the country. Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma, and Jemimah Rodriguez are the other cricketers who have already received their NOCs.
“It is delightful news not just for Shafali but for Indian women’s cricket that there will be five Indian players in the inaugural edition of The Hundred. She will reunite with her Sydney Sixers coach Ben Sawyer and the experience should help her grow further in what has already been a very positive road forward for the youngster,” the source said to ANI.
“The reason behind the fast foot movement is the time I spent with the Haryana men’s team ahead of the Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. I cannot thank the Haryana Cricket Association enough for allowing me to train with the team. What it did was that it helped my decision-making power at the crease as I was facing fast bowlers who were touching close to the 140kph mark. So, I had that extra second to decide if I wanted to go back or play off the front foot when I played the T20I series,” she told ANI.
“We had some top-quality bowlers in Mohit Sharma, Ashish Hooda, Ajeet Chahal, Sanjay Pahal, and Aman Kumar among others.”
“Yes, I did work on my fitness during the time away from the game due to lockdown. Here too, cannot thank the HCA enough. Every player was catered to individually. Our needs were looked into and even for things like dumbbells, HCA ensured every player had the equipment to train. At the top level, you need to be fit to perform,” she had said.