Armed force

Short hair, killer batting, bowling that makes opponents quake. Shafali Verma, at 21, is flexing her superpowers. It's been two months since the Women's World Cup win. Where do superheroes go from here?

- Christalle Fernandes

Sha-fa-li! Sha-fa-li! Sha-fa-li! Imagine being 21, the youngest member of the India team, stepping out to bat at the Women's World Cup cricket finals in Navi Mumbai in November last year, and hearing the crowds chant your name. No pressure, right? To the 55,000 people watching Shafali Verma live, and the 185 million following the match on screens, it seemed like it.

Verma, however, wasn't even supposed to be in this match. The selectors for the World Cup thought her form was inconsistent. She only got pencilled in, right before the semifinals, to replace Pratika Rawal, who'd injured her ankle and knee. Weeks before the series, Verma had been journalling that her days of cricket were over. But on the pitch, she played as if she'd belonged there all along, self-doubt forgotten. Her 87 runs off 78 balls and two killer wickets when she bowled gave India the numbers it needed to beat South Africa that night, and lift the ICC Women's World Cup trophy for the first time.

All through, fans in YouTube's live comments were nominating Verma for Player of the Match. They got their wish. And for Verma, two months on, life has changed. She's India's darling. She and the team have been showing up on TV shows, in ads, at A-list events. But who is Shafali Shafali, really?

Is 21 too young? It depends on whom you ask. At 21, American basketball player LeBron James was on his way to becoming an NBA star; Sachin Tendulkar had scored his first ODI century. Verma is getting there. She scored a double century in test cricket in June 2024, becoming only the second Indian woman to do so. "I've been ticking goals off my list that I didn't even think were possible to set in the first place."

Her teammates call it her Golden Arm. It comes with a not-so-golden back story. Verma grew up in a cricket-mad family in Rohtak, Haryana, obsessed with Sachin Tendulkar. She'd play cricket in fields, parks, under flyovers - anywhere she got a chance to swing a bat.