India national cricket team’s legendary off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was criticized by fans for harassing 21-year-old opening batsman Shafali Verma in the final of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025.
Team India is taking on Team South Africa in the final match of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai on Sunday, November 2.
Shafali Verma played a brilliant innings in the World Cup final
Young Haryana batsman Shafali is considered one of the most explosive batsmen in women’s cricket, but after poor performances with the bat, she was dropped from the Indian team by the BCCI selection committee.
He received strict orders from the selectors to improve his batting and work hard in domestic cricket. The batsman did exactly that and played some good innings in domestic cricket.
Ahead of the Women’s World Cup, Shafali also played impressive innings for India A, but it was not enough to get selected in the squad for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025.
Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Raval remained the opening batsmen for India in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 and both performed brilliantly. In most of the matches, he provided great starts to India; However, a serious injury to Pratika Raval broke the opening pair.
Raval’s injury ruled her out of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 and India was forced to recall Shafali Verma. This young player was directly included in the playing eleven in the semi-final against Australia.
Shafali Verma started well, but was out after scoring 10 runs in the knockout match as India eventually won. The batsman made sure to improve his performance in the final and played sensational innings with an amazing strike rate.
Ravichandran Ashwin’s trouble Shafali
She looked to be in great form and had her sights set on the three-point mark. However, unfortunately she missed out on achieving this feat. As she turned 80, Ravichandran Ashwin shared a post for Shafali Verma on Twitter, and expected a big century from her.
Ravichandran Ashwin wrote on Twitter, “A big century from Shefali will take this final on the path to the 2003 Men’s World Cup final. #ICCWomensWorldCup2025.”
A big century from Shafali would put this final on the path to the 2003 Men’s World Cup final. #ICCWomensWorldCup2025
– Ashwin (@ashwinravi99) 2 November 2025
However, minutes after Ravichandran Ashwin’s post, the batsman was out to Ayabonga Khaka on the fifth ball of the 28th over after scoring 87 runs off 78 balls. Ravichandran Ashwin received heavy criticism for harassing Shafali and he left a sad emoji comment below his post after the wicket.
– Ashwin (@ashwinravi99) 2 November 2025
Shafali Verma broke Virender Sehwag’s record, but could not overtake Gautam Gambhir.
Her stellar performance in the final helped Shafali become the youngest player, male or female, to score a half-century in an ODI World Cup final. She also went ahead of Virender Sehwag and Punam Raut for the highest score by an Indian in a Cricket World Cup final, but could not surpass Gautam Gambhir’s record of 97 runs.
India’s highest score in a World Cup final:
97 – Gautam Gambhir (2011)
91* – MS Dhoni (2011)
87 – Shafali Verma (2025)*
86 – Punam Raut (2017)
82 – Virender Sehwag (2003)
Meanwhile, speaking before the match, India women’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur said that there was a conversation inside the dressing room about their journey in the tournament. He said:
“But at the end of the day, it’s about how we get to the end. We were talking about this journey, what we have to do after this loss, how to improve ourselves and with that we have to stick together and help each other. It really showed how many positive characters there are in the team.”
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