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Follow UsTo say that Shafali Verma is obsessed with Meg Lanning will be an understatement.
In a Jio Cinema WPL show called “Huddle”, host Reema Malhotra asked Shafali about her performances in the last season. After a generic first sentence, everything Shafali added to the answer revolved around Lanning.
When Shafali talked about her, there was a glint in her eyes, and a small smile appeared. The same one that lights up your face when you talk about someone you admire and have a lot of reverence for. That reaction was also repeated when a question about interaction with overseas players arose.
If it wasn’t already clear last year, it became evident that the former Australian skipper massively influences the Indian batting sensation. So much so that her teammates sometimes call her “Lanning” as they got tired of hearing Shafali say the L word more than Ranbir Singh says “Papa” in the movie Animal.
There’s a reason that this kind of reverence set in Shafali about Lanning.
The batter from Haryana took the tournament by the scruff of its neck and hit 252 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 185.3. Despite being an aggressive batter everywhere, Shafali’s strike rate never reached that level internationally. Nor did her average (31.5 in WPL 2023). For India, she averages 24.31 and strikes at 130.27.
That difference isn’t small. In essence, we see a version of Shafali in the WPL that everyone thinks is still a few years away when she plays international cricket. Of course, international cricket is different, and so are its pressures. It isn’t an equitable comparison.
However, there’s one thing on which all (experts, fans, and Shafali herself) agree - Meg Lanning has played a big role in this transformation.
When Shafali started opening the batting with the Delhi Capital’s skipper, massive changes were visible in her approach to batting. The ugly hoick across the line that we are so accustomed to seeing reduced significantly. Her sedentary strike rotation patterns visibly improved, and so did her running speed between the wickets. The best thing to come out of it was that she crossed 50 two out of the three times she reached the 30-run mark.
Shafali continued the same good work against UP Warriorz in her second game of the second season, where she remained 64* not out in a chase of 120. Listening to her speak to the broadcasters after the game revealed that Lanning has had a great role in this change.
“She [Lanning] keeps telling me if I’m not getting a ball to hit, I should just look to take singles. Moreover, taking a single and watching her from the other end also pushes me to react by myself and take a single if the ball isn’t pitched up. I think this really helps,” Shafali told Parthiv Patel after the game.
In more than one interview last season, she mentioned how Lanning had helped calm her down. Even after the UP game, when Lanning was asked about her conversations with Shafali in the middle, she revealed it was all about encouraging her to play to her strengths.
“It’s a lot of fun batting with Shafali. I love standing at the other end and watching her smash sixes. When she’s hitting nice and straight, she plays really well. She doesn’t needs to complicate anything. She’s such a good striker of the ball. It was just about keeping things nice and simple. So it’s just about encouraging her to play to her strengths and having bit of a laugh as well, which is very important,” Lanning said.
That mutual admiration of each other’s game, reflected in Lanning’s statement, has resulted in the creation of the most legendary batting partnership in the short history of the WPL.
Lanning and Shafali’s partnership has lasted for 54.6 runs on average in the WPL, and they have scored 601 runs in 11 innings together, which involves three 50 and 100-run partnerships each. No other partnership in the WPL even comes close.
If you don’t believe the freakish nature of the record, read it again. Shafali and Lanning may be like chalk and cheese, but together, they are just an unadulterated massive wheel of cheese that keeps rolling on, spreading its enticing goodness everywhere.
That also happened today, as ‘Meg-ali’ completed the 120-run chase almost single-handedly.
While Shafali hit six 4s and four 6s, her senior partner was more sedate, allowing Shafali to farm the strike and take the bowlers on. As she has done in the ten games before this in the WPL and throughout her international career, she didn’t need an invitation to go long and big. She finished the chase not out - something she has managed to do only once in the WPL.
But that was about Shafali. What about Lanning?
For Lanning, there couldn’t be a better way to keep finding meaning and purpose in the game, which she has struggled with in the past. She has won it all, seen it all. She's also done with international cricket. Now, she is giving back to the game by helping youngsters like Shafali.
Prodigious talents like Shafali need timely advice and an occasional hand on their shoulders to tell them what they are doing is right or wrong. Lanning, so far, has done exactly that. Otherwise, nothing is wasted more than prodigious talent who couldn’t transform their potential into performance.
As batters, Lanning and Shafali couldn’t be more different. Lanning is cool and calm like ice, while Shafali is wildfire. But here they are, repeating their exploits of the last season, where their opening burst was key in their team reaching the final.
For them to reach a step higher this time, their Song of Ice and Fire needs to keep playing.
