Shafali Verma‘s father, Sanjeev Verma, has thought back on how family support kept Shafali motivated during a trying time in her career. Shefali’s all-around performance in the Women’s World Cup 2025 final earned her the Player of the Match honor.
After missing the last few months of the 50-over setup, Sanjeev thought about how Shefali would be feeling low. Additionally, he mentioned how Shafali’s family and he constantly encouraged her to maintain her fortitude.
She hadn’t played for the ODI team in a year. She was somewhat upset because there were only domestic matches and T20s playing. We attempted to encourage her by reminding her of a few things and saying things like, “You’re the same Shafali who led the Indian team to the 2020 T20 World Cup final.” It’s you, Shafali, who has dominated the WPL, hammered massive sixes, and scored double hundreds. Sanjeev said, “So yes, sometimes you have to motivate her a bit,” as reported by India Today.
Additionally, Sanjeev emphasized his conversation with Harmanpreet Kaur following the conclusion of the Navi Mumbai match. He also commended the higher power for giving Shafali Verma and the Women in Blue preferential treatment.
We also gave Harman (Harmanpreet Kaur) our congratulations after Shafali Verma forced us to speak witherh .
“Uncle, congrats to you too!” she said. We said, “Thank you for giving Shafali Verma that over,” and thanked her. We sincerely appreciate her because God listened to Harman when he took a chance by entrusting that to Shafali. We’re grateful to God, and we can’t say enough that our daughter made it happen and Team India prevailed,” he continued.
At 21 years and 279 days, Shafali Verma made history as the youngest player to win Player of the Match in both the men’s and women’s sides of an ODI World Cup semifinal or final. The match was ultimately decided by her 87 off 78 and 2/36 in seven overs. India won their first-ever Women’s World Cup. The Player of the Tournament award was given to Deepti Sharma.
India
