India vs Australia women: Fans spot similarities in Shafali Verma & Virat Kohli's stance

India Women’s cricket team opener Shafali Verma is currently playing the one-off pink ball Test for India, as a part of India Women’s tour of Australia. As she opened the innings for India on September 30, after Australia won the toss and chose to field first, cricket fans on the internet were quick to notice the similarities between Shafali’s batting stance and the stance of India Men’s skipper Virat Kohli while batting. While batting in the pink-ball test with fellow opener Smriti Mandhana, Verma scored 31 individual runs before walking back to the pavilion on being dismissed by Australian spinner Molineux in the 26th over of India’s first innings.

Apart from the similarity in their stance, both Kohli and Shafali made their International debut for India at a young age. Virat Kohli made his international debut for India in 2008 at the age of 19 years old, just after clinching the Under 19 World Cup 2008 for India. On the other hand, Shafali Verma made her International debut for the India Women's in 2009, when she was just 15-years-old. 

Netizens react to Shefali Verma's stance-

Meanwhile, cricket fans in India, on spotting the Indian prodigy’s batting stance, were quick to take to Twitter and expressed their side to this development. A user admitted that for an instance, he thought he is watching the Kohli bat at Perth, referring to Shafali Verma’s stance being similar to that of Kohli. Meanwhile, another user mentioned the points she noticed about Shafali in her tweet. As per the Twitter user, apart from only the stance being similar between the two cricketers, Shafali’s back and across movement in the batting crease look the same as Kohli’s. She added that the India women’s opener has the same problem of facing deliveries outside the off stump, just like Kohli has been facing in the past few matches. 

Whereas, a lot of users agreed to the claim about Shafali Verma’s stance being similar to that of the sensational Indian captain.

On the match front, India batting first in their first-ever pink-ball test, scored 132/1 in 44.1 overs before the play was stopped due to rain. After Shafali departed, Smriti Mandhana amassed a total of 80 runs and continued to remain at the crease along with Punam Raut, who scored 16 individual runs. This is India's second Test match of the year, after previously playing a lone Test against England in June 2021.

(Image: AP)