Shafali Verma has provided fresh perspective to how women’s T20 can be played: Sanjay Bangar

Former India cricketer and batting coach Sanjay Bangar said on Thursday that India Women’s dashing opener Shafali Verma, who has lit up the T20 World Cup in Australia with her spectacular strokeplay, has provided a fresh perspective on how the shortest format should be played in women’s circuit

“You obviously watch which areas a particular batsman/batter tends to score, anybody scoring through the off-side really well means that the person can score all around the park. That is the basic logic because to play through the off-side you have to get into great positions and a lot of mechanics of batting have to be in sync to do that,” said Bangar, who will be playing for India Legends at the Road Safety World Series starting on Saturday, while talking about Shafali’s adroit strokes over the in-field on the off-side as well as through the cover region.

“Shafali has been able to do that, and she scores all around the park—that is one quality which not many people have. It is brilliant that we have unearthed such a talent and it has only taken the load off, or provided a fresh perspective to how T20 needs to be played by women cricketers,” he said.

Bangar said the league stage showcased the depth of talent in the women’s team. “They have been fabulous. Winning four league games out of the four they had to play and the manner in which they won… there is new and young talent emerging which is also performing for the team. Getting to this stage without a big performance from someone like Smriti Mandhana or Harmanpreet Kaur shows the depth which the team possesses. Also, going Down Under and spinners dominating for the Indian team has been a great sign—that has been our area of strength.”

“It augurs well; we finished highest in the table, we got the distinct advantage and rightfully so to qualify for the final, so from that perspective things look really good for the Indian team,” he said.

Bangar said women cricketers have grown stronger and fitter, which has reflected in their fielding standards as well. “The BCCI has taken a lot of effort in sort of streamlining women’s cricket in India. Players are getting more professional because of that, they have access to all facilities; they have access to the NCA (Bengaluru) all the time,” he said.

“From that perspective a lot of things have been done by the board for the growth of women’s cricket and it is just a fall out of that which you see now—the women cricketers are getting stronger and fitter. Once you get stronger and fitter, the area that immediately improves is fielding because that is one basic parameter. A lot of work has gone into it and the framework that we now have for female cricketers is as good as for the male players,” he said.