India opener Shafali Varma has been dropped from the squad for the ODI tour to Australia, beginning on December 5.
The side will be led by Harmanpreet Kaur, with Smriti Mandhana as the vice-captain. India will play three ODIs in Australia over six days, with the series culminating at Perth on December 11.
India’s squad had a surprise exclusion in the form of Shafali, the opener who created plenty of waves when she first burst onto the scene as a 15-year-old. So, what has happened since?
Why has Shafali Varma been dropped?
Form, or the lack of it. The Haryana batter has played 29 ODIs, scoring 644 runs at an average of 23 since her debut in June 2021. Ten India batters have made at least 200 runs in this period, but none average below Shafali, indicating her inconsistent run. All-rounders Deepti Sharma (27.95) and Pooja Vastrakar (27.61) had better batting averages than Shafali, despite having their batting positions shuffled around constantly in the last three years.
Shafali, on the other hand, batted at the top in each of the 29 innings she played. She started with a 14-ball 15 on debut in England before making a cautious 44 in 55 balls in the next game. She had two fifties in her first nine innings - both away from home, in Australia and New Zealand. Her other two ODI fifties were also abroad - a knock of 53 at Christchurch during the ODI World Cup against Sri Lanka and the other in Sri Lanka that year in July.
In her first year of ODI cricket, Shafali had 522 runs in 18 innings at an average of 30.70 with four fifties, raising her hands when needed by the team in stiff conditions.
Since then, though, her fortunes have taken a dip. She has played 11 games, making only 122 runs at a paltry average of 11.09. Her opening partner Mandhana has made 798 runs and averages 57 in the interim, suggesting how the left-hander has taken on the responsibility during Shafali’s no-show.
She's known for high-rate of scoring, but Shafali's strike rate in 2024 (82.44) is a drop from her numbers in 2022 (88.66). She has a high score of 33 since September 2022 in ODIs, registering knocks of below 15 eight times. Since that period, her strike rate is also 77.70, which only adds pressure on the batters to follow.
The full squad for the Australia tour can be found here.
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