In 2013, a young girl from Rohtak, Haryana, watched her cricketing idol Virender Sehwag smash boundaries on TV and dreamed of doing the same. But when she stepped out to chase that dream, reality hit hard - not a single academy in her city would train a girl. The doors of opportunity were closed before she even knocked.
That’s when her father, Sanjeev Verma, made a decision that would change both their lives. He cut her hair short, dressed her in her brother’s clothes, and introduced her to the world as Sahil Verma. With a boy’s name and a bat in her hand, Shafali began practicing at a local academy where nobody suspected the truth.
Every evening, she faced fast bowlers who didn’t know they were bowling to a girl. Every evening, she answered them not with words, but with the crack of her bat - boundary after boundary, shot after fearless shot. The disguise soon faded, but the fire stayed.
By 15, Shafali Verma had become the youngest cricketer ever to represent India in T20 internationals. Her bold strokes, aggressive batting, and unflinching confidence reminded fans of her idol, Sehwag. And by 19, she was leading India’s Under-19 Women’s team to their first-ever World Cup victory - a moment that inspired a generation of young girls to pick up the bat.
But cricket, like life, is never a straight climb. In 2024, when she was dropped from the squad for the Australia tour, it felt like the dream was slipping. Just two days later, her father - the man who had disguised her dreams as a boy’s - suffered a heart attack. Shafali didn’t tell him about her exclusion. She couldn’t bear to add to his pain. Instead, she went back to domestic cricket, training harder, refining her game, and waiting.
When the 2025 Women’s World Cup squad was announced, her name wasn’t on it. Yet, she didn’t quit. She stayed ready. Because she knew - chances don’t vanish, they return to those who persist.
And return they did. When an Indian opener got injured during the World Cup, Shafali was called up as a replacement. The stage she’d once lost was back - only this time, she owned it.
On November 2, 2025, in the World Cup final against South Africa, Shafali not only steadied the innings but took two crucial wickets with her part-time spin - turning the tide of the match. India won their first-ever Women’s World Cup by 52 runs.
As the tricolor flew high and her teammates lifted her on their shoulders, Shafali looked up to the stands - where her father, teary-eyed and smiling, mouthed the words that had shaped her journey:
"If the ball is there to be hit, hit it hard."
And she did - all the way into history.