Shafali Verma Equals Rahul Dravid’s Record After Getting Out In 90s On Debut

Shafali Verma scripted history on Day 2 of the one-off Test between India and England being played in Bristol. The young cricketer broke the 26-year-old record to become the highest run-scorer Indian woman cricketer in a Test debut match. The teenager has broken Chandrakanta Kaul’s (75 runs, 1995) record.

She also became the first Indian women cricketer who got out in the 90s on Test debut. She will share this record with former India skipper Rahul Dravid. Dravid, too, was dismissed in the 90s on his Test debut.

Here it is to be noted that Rahul Dravid also made his Test debut against England. He smashed 95 before edging one to Jack Russell off Chris Lewis’s bowling. In the same match, current Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president and former India skipper Sourav Ganguly also made his Test debut. Ganguly went on to scored 131 on his Test debut.

Shafali also became the first Indian woman to smash a six on her Test debut. With this, Shafali also equalled the record for most sixes by a woman in Test innings. She hit two huge sixes in Bristol and equalled Alyssa Healy and Lauren Winfield-Hill’s joint record.

Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana put on the highest opening stand for the India women’s team in Test cricket, their 167-run partnership giving the visitors a head start in their pursuit of England Women’s first innings total of 396 in the one-off Test on Friday.

Verma and Mandhana beat Gargi Banerji & Sandhya Agarwal’s 153 against Australia at Mumbai in 1984 for the highest opening stand. This is the second highest opening partnership in women’s Tests away from home.

India’s Shafali Verma (17y-140d) was also the second-youngest woman to make a fifty on Test debut. South Africa’s Johmari Logtenberg (74) is the youngest at 14y-166 vs England in 2003.