India young gun wows Aus A coach Poulton

When Australia A coach Leah Poulton first laid eyes on Indian teen batting prodigy Shafali Verma, her initial reaction was one of disbelief. 

"That cannot be the 15-year-old," the former Australia batter and current CA high performance coach thought to herself, as Verma stode to the crease to open the batting for India A in the first of three 50-over matches at Brisbane’s Allan Border Field earlier this month. 

The hype surrounding the teen tyro has been growing in recent months – peaking when she broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record to become the youngest Indian to score an international half-century in November – and the Australia A team were eager to see what the fuss was about. 

The 15-year-old – who has already played nine matches for the senior Indian team and scored two half-centuries – did not disappoint in her first outing for India A against the Aussie ‘A’ side, smashing a remarkable 124 from 78 deliveries.

"She’s just an amazing talent, she’s only 15 years old and she’s got so much power," Poulton told cricket.com.au. 

"We’d seen a bit of footage leading in, she’s played a bit of cricket for India.  

"But when you watch footage of a player like that, it probably doesn’t do it justice because she’s actually got a really good presence at the crease.  

"Even though she’s 15, she’s a tall girl, strong girl as well … when she walked out to bat, I thought, ‘that can’t be the 15 year old’.” 

Despite her tender age, Verma has already seemingly cemented her spot at the top of the senior India batting order alongside superstar Smriti Mandhana. 

She struck scores of 73 and 69no during India’s recent tour of the Caribbean, before heading to Australia for the ‘A’ series. 

With Australia to meet India in the opening match of the T20 World Cup on February 21, there’s no doubt national coach Matthew Mott would have been watching Verma closely.  

"She’s not your typical Indian opening bat," Poulton said. 

"Over the years they’ve produced these opening bats with these amazing techniques and they’re really crafty, whereas she walked out there and she was just pure power.  

"It was really good to watch, I did get into fan mode for a while there (during the century)." 

"She just had so much composure at the crease, she didn’t looked fussed at all.  

"She’s definitely going to be one to watch over the next few years." 

Australia A managed to counter the aggressive teenager through the remainder of the six-game limited-overs series, with her next highest score 46 after she was dismissed by off-spinner Molly Strano on four occasions. 

"For someone who likes to score quickly, their greatest strength is also their greatest weakness," Poulton said. 

"We knew she wanted to score off every ball and she wasn’t really looking for ones, so we were able to come up with a plan where we forced her to lose a bit of patience there.  

"That said, she’s a good player and I’m sure they’ll come back (for the World Cup) with different plans for her." 

Australia will come up against India – and likely Verma – for the first time on February 2 when the sides face off at Manuka Oval in the CommBank T20I Tri-Series, a contest also featuring England that will serve as preparation for the World Cup.