When Shafali Verma impersonated her brother Sahil and won awards

Shafali Verma has turned out to be the latest sensation in Indian cricket. She is only 15 years old and at the tender age, she has taken rapid strides. Back in October, she got the first taste of international cricket after making his T20I debut against South Africa in Surat. In the next month, the Young Turk went on to break Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar’s 30-year-old record.

The girl from Rohtak, Haryana went on to became the youngest Indian to smash an international half-century. She achieved the feat in India’s first T20I versus the West Indies in Gros Islet. Not only that, she followed it up with a 69* in the next match at the same venue. In nine T20Is thus far, the youngster has notched 222 runs with an average of 27.75, striking at 142.30.

Shafali Verma disguises herself

In the meantime, a funny incident surrounding Shafali has come to the fore. In 2012, her brother, Sahil fell sick and hence couldn’t take part in a U12 tournament in Panipat. However, Shafali went and took part and couldn’t be identified as a girl while she smashed records. Sanjeev Verma, Shafali’s proud father, made the revelations surrounding his daughter.

“Back in 2012, her brother Sahil had to go to Panipat for a U12 tournament. But he fell sick and couldn’t go. Then she disguised herself as Sahil and took part. She won the Man of the Match and Man of the Series awards and they couldn’t identify that she is a girl,” Sanjeev was quoted as saying in an interview with India Today.

Her father also played a pivotal role in his success. They used to practice at home with the tennis ball. Shafali asked her father to get her a boy-cut and after three attempts, her father accepted. Sanjeev Verma accepted to it keeping in mind her love for cricket.

After weaving magic in T20Is, Shafali now wishes to break into the ODI team as well. Shafali has Tendulkar as her idol and it was only after seeing him that Shafali turned to cricket. She is happy after breaking the maestro’s record and is eyeing many more milestones going into the future.