I’VE seen the new Sachin Tendulkar and he wasn’t at Southampton where India are currently playing New Zealand in the final of the World Test Championship. In fact, it isn’t a ‘he’ at all in which this batting wonderment lies but in the shape of Shafali Verma, the right-handed opener for the Indian Women’s team.
Verma is 17 and was making her Test debut, which is a bit misleading as women cricketers don’t play many Tests. She has played 22 T20 internationals though, so is not entirely an ingenue, as her wonderful batting has showed. But like the teenager she is, she still chews bubb...