Ahead of India’s semi-final clash against Bangladesh on July 26 in the 2024 Women’s Asia Cup, hard-hitting opener Shafali Verma stated that the reigning champions understand how crucial the knockout clash is to them. India, captained by Harmanpreet Kaur, remains unbeaten in the tournament, defeating Pakistan by seven wickets, UAE by 78 runs, and Nepal by 82 runs to top Group A.

Really happy with the way we all have gelled up with each other and are winning the matches. The semi-final is a very important thing for us. Today, we all have come up for practice and hopefully, we will do our best thing to do good tomorrow, said Shafali in the pre-match press conference.

With 158 runs, Shafali is the tournament’s second-best run-scorer in an Indian batting lineup that includes Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Richa Ghosh. She believes lower-order batters such as Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar are capable of producing huge hits if necessary.

We just back ourselves and as a batting unit, we are backing our strengths. The bowlers are doing a great job, but day by day, we have to keep improving ourselves. Every day, the lower-order batters are batting in the nets. Whenever they get a chance, I hope they get to hit sixes, the right-handed batter added.

Shafali concluded by stating that India is working hard to improve its fielding performance, which has been mediocre in the Asia Cup. We’re working hard on our fielding. So, we’ll try to cross off all of the boxes – batting, bowling, and fielding – and contribute to the best performances in the semi-finals.