Men's Team Fielding Coach R Sridhar Has A Special Message For Shafali Verma And Women's Team

Seventeen-year-old Shafali Verma is leading India from the front, smashing two half-centuries on her debut in the one-off Test against England Women. On Friday, Shafali became only the fourth player in the history of women's cricket to score a half-century in both innings of the debut Test. She was unbeaten on 55 off just 68 balls in the second innings when the third day's play was called off due to rain. Shafali and the Indian women team's performance hasn't gone unnoticed as R Sridhar, the fielding coach of India men's team, said that they hadn't missed a "beat of the girls' game" from day one. 

The official handle of BCCI shared a 58-second clip from Sridhar's press conference on Twitter. 

"Support for the women's team from Southampton! Go well! Team India," reads the caption of the video.  

Support for the women's team from Southampton!

Go well!#TeamIndia @coach_rsridhar pic.twitter.com/ncE2gzS8mf

— BCCI (@BCCI) June 18, 2021

"Except for the time when we were out for practice, all of us have seen the game. It's been live in our rooms, in our team room, in our breakfast area and even today while we waited for the rain to stop, all of us were waiting and watching the girls' game," he said. "They are now fighting to get back into the game. We have seen Deepti putting up a stoic performance there."

Sridhar said Shafali reminds him so much of Viru (Virender Sehwag). 

"The way she plays, her mindset is so clear. We are enjoying her innings. We wish she had got a hundred in the first innings. Well, played Smriti and Shafali, what a rollicking they gave in the first innings. Unfortunately, we couldn't capitalise on that," Sridhar said. "It's a great test match going there."

At the end of day 3, India trailed by 82 runs with nine wickets in hand and they still need to do a lot of work to save the match on the final day on Saturday. Only 45.5 overs could be bowled on Friday due to three interruptions caused by rain. Following the third interruption, the umpires called tea. The final session could not be resumed due to incessant rain. 

Meanwhile, the play was called off on day 1 of the World Test Championship final without even a single ball bowled. Toss was also delayed earlier on Friday because of rain. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) revealed that the play will start at the scheduled time on Saturday -- 3 pm IST.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Women England Women Shafali Verma Cricket