- By Vishal Pushkar
- Wed, 29 Oct 2025 06:56 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
India Women vs Australia, ODI World Cup 2025 Semi-final 2: India opener Shafali Verma, who has been inducted into the squad as a replacement of injured Pratika Rawal in the ongoing ODI World Cup 2025, is looking to create an impact if she gets a chance to feature in the XI against Australia.
The 21-year-old has a good amount of experience behind her as she spoke on how challenging it could be for her if she gets to play a knock-out match first up.
“Of course it’s challenging if you come in directly in the semi-final. I think playing at home in a World Cup is a different motivation because of the huge crowd that’s cheering you. When you see a packed stadium, your feet start to move automatically as a sportsperson. Motivation is, a 100%, there. The simpler I keep it, the better I will perform.
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“If god has sent me here, I’ll try to play my best game with the best intent, if I play, and try to do what the team needs, do what I do the best, and keep it simple. I’ll try and keep telling myself little things like ‘stay calm’ and ‘believe in yourself.’ These things will help, hopefully, and I’m doing well in practice, and hopefully things will get better for me," Verma said in a video shared by the BCCI on Wednesday.
Shafali is still trying to get a grip of 50 over format which doesn't come to her as easily as the T20 where she enjoys a strike-rate of 131 and has played 90 games for the national team.
“I was playing T20s but as a batter, it's not that easy to switch. But we had a practice session today as well as yesterday (Tuesday). I tried to stay calm while batting. I tried to play good balls along the ground and and those that were in my range, I tried to hit them well.
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"I have had long batting sessions in the last two days, today and tomorrow and I felt great knowing I did all that I was trying to do,” she added.
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