2025 Women’s World Cup: Shafali Verma sweats it out in nets, Richa Ghosh keeps wickets as India prepare for Australia semifinal | Cricket News
Navi Mumbai: Summoned out of the blue due to a freak injury that ruled Pratika Rawal out of the tournament, opener Shafali Verma, who has a knack for being explosive yet inconsistent, slogged it out during India’s training session under lights at the DY Patil Stadium on Tuesday with the rest of the Indian women’s team, two days out from their 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup semifinal clash against Australia. Shafali was suddenly drafted into the side on Monday after opener Pratika Rawal was ruled out of the tournament following injuries to her knee and ankle, suffered during their last league match here at the DY Patil Stadium against Bangladesh. India will take on seven-time champions Australia, unbeaten so far in the World Cup, in the second semifinal here on Thursday. The 21-year-old Shafali made her ODI debut for India on June 27, 2021, against England in Bristol. Overall, she has played 29 ODIs, scoring 644 runs at an average of 23.00. She has amassed four fifties in ODIs and has a highest score of 71 not out. She is currently the top run-getter in the ongoing Senior Women’s T20 League, having made 341 runs at a strike rate of 182.35 for Haryana. Spending more than an hour in the nets, Shafali practised high catches with her teammates before padding up to bat alongside the Indian top order at the University Ground here. In what will be a big relief to the Indian women’s cricket team’s fans, keeper-batter Richa Ghosh, who missed the last league match against Bangladesh on Sunday due to a finger injury, kept wickets against net bowlers and also had a hit in the nets without any visible discomfort. Among the others who trained were Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur, her deputy Smriti Mandhana, off-spinning allrounder Sneh Rana, and top-order batter Harleen Deol.
