Shafali Verma

Opening the batting in that game, she did not pile up a big total, yet the poise she carried to the crease and the sound judgement behind her stroke choices won her plenty of admirers. Later that year she produced further strong displays in the Women's T20 Challenge, and those performances led to her call-up to the India side for a home T20I series against South Africa.

Her path into the sport was far from straightforward. Growing up in Rohtak, she found there was no academy where girls could train, so she took to disguising herself as a boy in order to practise. Her father went along with the arrangement, though not without hesitation, since there was a clear risk of the deception being discovered.

A bold, attacking opener, Verma is regarded as at her best when she plays without fear, and some see her as a natural candidate to follow in the footsteps of Smriti Mandhana. Among the players who have shaped her outlook, she grew up looking up to Sachin Tendulkar and also counts herself a big admirer of AB de Villiers.