The young, yet experienced duo of Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh will view the upcoming Women’s U-19 World Cup as a great preparation opportunity for the T20 World Cup that follows soon after.
Verma and Ghosh, both of whom have been key members of the Indian Women’s cricket setup having played 73 and 46 international matches respectively, will be in action at the inaugural edition of the Women’s U-19 World Cup in South Africa to be played between January 14 and January 29.
The tournament would be looked at as another preparation opportunity for the duo, ahead of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 beginning February 10. With Shafali and Ghosh set to miss the Women’s tri-series featuring hosts South Africa and the West Indies, which will run concurrently with the U-19 World Cup, batting coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar revealed a certain set of roles for the pair at the latter event.
“We’ll have a few things we want them [Shafali and Ghosh] to continue doing in terms of preparation for the Women’s T20 World Cup,”
he said on Monday.
“I’ll have a word with the Under-19 coach so that the communication goes to both ends. We’ll have a few discussions so that there’s clarity with the coach as well as the players, and there’s no confusion on what we want and what they should be doing.”
Shafali and Ghosh have had a fine run in the ongoing five-match home T20I series against Australia, with the visitors leading 3-1 currently with a match to play. Shafali has aggregated 127 runs at a strike-rate of 141.11, while Ghosh has struck at 190.74 for her 103 runs while being dismissed just twice in four innings.
The fifth T20I will be played at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai on Tuesday, December 20.
