Shafali Verma has been a key contributor for India in this Women’s T20 World Cup 2026. | Photo Credit: AP

Shafali Verma took the new ball for India against South Africa. She enjoyed every minute of it, giving away just three runs as part of a four-over spell that yielded figures of one for 22.

Is she seeing herself as an all-rounder these days?

“Yes, I would say I am an all-rounder now,” she said with a smile here on Wednesday, on the eve of India’s crucial T20 Women’s World Cup match against Bangladesh. “In domestic cricket, playing for Haryana, I have always tried to bowl, as a captain too, and used to think what I could do if I get a chance to bowl for the Indian team.”

She revealed she had visualised the very situation (bowling the first over of the innings). “I had prepared for it, and worked hard. That is why I could execute well,” she said. “As a player I would like to put my hand up and serve the team in a given situation.”

Shafali said her father had asked her to bowl from her earliest days. “My brother is a leg-spinner and he said I too should bowl,” she said. “My father now is happy and tells me it was good that I bowled on those days.”

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Looking forward to the Bangladesh match, Shafali. “We can’t take any team lightly,” she said. “They also came here to play good cricket. We will go game by game and try to play our best cricket and try to win that game”

She said the morale was down after the loss to South Africa. “But we motivated each other for our last two group matches, against Bangladesh and Australia,” she said.

We believe we have a chance against India: Sobhana Mostary

Bangladesh’s Sobhana Mostary believes her team definitely has a chance against India.

“India is a very good team, but we have competed well against them before,” she said about Thursday’s Group A match. “We have to focus more on our batting. Cricket is a game of the day and we play our best cricket on the day, we have a chance.”

Sobhana said Bangladesh had played two hard matches. “And we have two hard matches coming up, but if we win them, we are going into the semifinals,” she said. “The conditions here are very different from our country, so I have tried to adapt accordingly. And it looks like a good wicket, too.”

She said playing the tri-series in Scotland helped. “We were all excited as the conditions were similar,” she said. “We lost two games and then won two. We actually had good preparations in Scotland for the World Cup.

Published on Jun 24, 2026