New and improved Shafali has brought method to her madness

There are some shots that get a batter going. It's like an assurance that bursts to life the moment they execute it. For Shafali Verma, that shot is a bottom-handed shovel down the ground. She clubs the ball with ferocity. It isn't as much a shot but a switch that flicks her game on and moves it to the next level.

It was first on display in the fifth over of the Delhi Capitals chase against Gujarat Giants. The target was a mere 127, and the team had lost two quick wickets. Shafali had a role to play in Meg Lanning's run out and needed to bat through to see her team home. Here was an opportunity to rediscover her "hitting touch" ahead of the final, after four games of being unable to kick on.

Shafali could have had a few sighters if she wished to. But she decided to go after Meghna Singh and walloped a six down the ground. It was hit hard, flat, and with plenty of bottom-hand, laced with an element of wrist. It was magic.

If you have watched Shafali bat for a length of time now, you would have noticed the propensity to move around the crease. This movement isn't as much to throw the bowler off, as it is to try and manufacture something. Bowlers the world over - especially Katherine Sciver-Brunt - have found workarounds by attacking her body and hitting hard lengths that cramp her.

Over time, coaches have worked around limiting these premeditated movements with varying degrees of success. The focus hasn't been to eliminate her attacking mindset. There have been chats to help her access different areas of the ground to the same ball.

At the WPL, with games coming thick and fast, the onus is also on the player to learn on the job. And Shafali appears to have taken those suggestions on board and has based her power game not as much around her movements, but on picking lengths, her bat swing, and the follow through.

The method brought her a 37-ball 71 on Wednesday. The movement wasn't within the crease but outside it. Like when she stepped out to clobber Ash Gardner three balls after she had shovelled Meghna. This one went even further, 91 metres and deep into the stands.

In the same over, Shafali went even straighter and cleared the ropes comfortably when mid-on went back. A trigger movement towards off stump to get close to the pitch followed by a free swing of the arms made it possible for her to hit it down the ground.

In a small chase, blows like these can quickly increase the pressure on the opponents. It certainly dissipated any relief Giants may have had after dismissing Lanning and Alice Capsey in the space of four deliveries in the fourth over.

"If you look at my batting closely, I've changed a few things," Shafali said afterwards. "I feel more stable at the crease. You can see I'm more stable. I'm able to hit my shots clearly, I'm able to find gaps." Shafali didn't elaborate on how she has been able to achieve that. But the proof's right there.

What Shafali was willing to give away, though, was the crux of her chats with Lanning. "We share a good bond. She wants to teach me. I used to struggle with consistency, get out in the 20s and 30s. I learnt from her, on days when you're in good touch, it's about how long you can play. The bad days teach you to score better [on good days when you're in]. I'm able to score better, and build my innings better. I talk to her when I need to and she is always happy to help me."

Shafali's discussions with Lanning have revolved largely around discovering methods that work, fine-tuning things like knowing when to temper down the hitting to try and bat long, and how to maximise your strengths.

"I didn't know what consistency was," Shafali said. "Now I understand it's very important. Not just now, even if you go back to 2020, from the time I played the T20 World Cup, I didn't know what consistency was. As you play, you learn about your shortcomings and what you can do better. Training and playing with big players like Meg has shown [me]. She hit two fifties. She's so experienced, even now she's still doing it, so why can't I achieve it?"

There was brute force on display when Shafali became a teenage wonder girl, when she broke through at the Women's T20 Challenge in 2019. That competition aimed to test the depth of women's cricket in India. There's little doubt that the tournament accelerated Shafali's journey to the India cap.

Now, five years on, Shafali is beginning to channel that brute force better and marry it with consistency. She's still a work in progress, but one can say with certainty her career graph is back on track and on its way up.