Women's World Cup 2025: Shafali Verma's father recounts how pep talk helped in motivating her amid challenging phase

Shafali Verma's father Sanjeev Verma has reflected on how encouragement from family members during a challenging period in Shafali's professional career helped in keeping her determined. Shefali earned the Player of the Match award in the final of the Women's World Cup 2025 following an all-round outing.

Sanjeev reflected on how Shefali would be down on spirits after not being a part of the 50-over setup in the last few months. He also commented on how he and Shafali's family consistently pushed her to stay resilient.

“She had been out of the ODI team for the past year. Only T20s and domestic matches were going on, so she was a bit disappointed. We tried to motivate her, reminded her of a few things, told her, “You’re the same Shafali who took the Indian team to the T20 World Cup final in 2020. You’re the same Shafali who has scored double centuries, who hits big sixes, who shone in the WPL. So yes, sometimes, you have to motivate her a bit,” stated Sanjeev, as quoted by India Today.

Sanjeev also highlighted the exchange between him and Harmanpreet Kaur after the contest in Navi Mumbai had concluded. He also praised the higher power for favouring Shafali and the Women in Blue.

“Shafali also made us talk to Harman (Harmanpreet Kaur), and we congratulated her as well. She said, “Uncle, congratulations to you too!” We thanked her and said, “Thank you for giving Shafali that over.” We’re truly grateful to her because Harman took a risk by giving that over to Shafali and God listened to us. We’re thankful to the Almighty, and what more can we say that our daughter made it happen, and Team India won!,” he added.

Aged 21 years and 279 days, Shafali became the youngest player to win the Player of the Match award in the semi-final or final of an ODI World Cup across the Men's and Women's game. Her 87 off 78 and 2/36 in seven overs proved match-defining in the end. India secured their maiden Women's World Cup title. Deepti Sharma was adjudged the Player of the Tournament.