Shafali Verma becomes youngest Indian to make debut in all formats

Teenage Indian batter Shafali Verma made history on Sunday as she made her senior ODI debut for the national side against England. Shafali became the youngest Indian to make her debut across all formats having taken took 17 years and 150 days. The opener further became the fifth-youngest player in the history of the game to have represented their respective national sides in all three formats of the game. The 17-year-old was handed her ODI cap by skipper Mithali Raj at Bristol, England. She was given the number 131. Shafali had made her Test debut in the one-off test match against the Three Lions. A heroic effort by Sneh Rana saw India churn out a draw despite being in several troublesome situations throughout the match. Shafali played incredibly well in that match, as she successfully managed to set a good platform for the middle and lower-order batters to perform.

Afghanistan’s Mujeeb Ur Rahman (17y 078d), England’s Sarah Taylor (17y 086d), Australia’s Ellyse Perry (17y 104d ), and Pakistan’s Mohammad Amir (17y 108d) are the only 4 players to achieve the feat before Shafali.

“A proud moment for our thunderbolt @TheShafaliVerma as she is presented with #TeamIndia cap number 131 from captain @M_Raj03. Here’s hoping she has a smashing debut. #ENGvIND,” the BCCI Women’s Twitter handled tweeted out on Sunday.

HUMBLING LOSS FOR INDIA

England women comfortably beat the Indians in the first ODI. The Indian batters just could not seem to get going. They barely managed to scrape through to 200 runs in their innings but that was not good enough. Shafali could only manage to score 15 runs off 14 deliveries in her ODI debut. Skipper Mithali Raj was the highest scoring batter from the Indian side as she scored 72 runs off 108 deliveries. Poonam Raut and Deepti Sharma played decent knocks of 32 and 30 runs respectively. The rest of the Indian batting lineup did not offer much.

For England, Sophie Ecclestone was the pick of the bowlers as she picked up three wickets. Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole picked a couple of wickets each while Kate Cross managed to bag one.

The English side comfortably managed to reach a low target of 202 set by the Indian side. They did so with eight wickets in hand and over 15 overs left. Tamsin Beaumont led the charge with an outstanding unbeaten 87 off 87 deliveries. She was wonderfully supported by Nat Sciver who also remained unbeaten at 72. Lauren Winfield-Hill was dismissed at 16 while skipper Heather Knight made 18.

The Indian bowlers did not really have anything to boast of. Veteran Jhulan Goswami and Ekta Bisht were the only two that managed to pick one wicket each. It was an utterly disappointing performance from the Indians in the end.