Rohtak comes to a halt for Shefali's grand homecoming

Rohtak: The tricolour fluttered from shopfronts and scooter handles; dhols echoed off the highway, and traffic at Rohad toll plaza on the Rohtak-Delhi road all but surrendered as a small white car slowed to a crawl. From its sunroof, a familiar figure in India blues rose into view, smiling shyly and joining her palms in a namaste as flower petals rained down. On a bright Sunday afternoon, Rohtak offered a grand homecoming to the World Cup hero Shafali Verma.

After the protocol-filled visits to meet the Prime Minister and the President, the 21-year-old opener, the player of the match in the final against South Africa, might have felt at home when Rohtak welcomed her in its inimical, unpolished, noisy, and utterly local style.

At Rohad toll here, the first stop inside her home district, Shafali’s cavalcade was halted by an impromptu reception line. Garlands were slipped over her neck, fans leaned dangerously over railings to click photos, and local leaders jostled for space near the car.

In the welcome convoy were Additional Deputy Commissioner Narendra Kumar, BJP district president Ranbir Dhaka, Congress youth leader Hemant Bakshi, her grandfather Santlal, father Sanjeev Verma and other family members.

As the roadshow rolled towards the city, Shafali stood up through the sunroof, waving, laughing and occasionally grabbing phones for quick selfies as chants of “India, India” and “Rohtak ki shaan Shafali” chased the vehicles through dust and exhaust.

The formal honours came at Rohtak Circuit House, where Haryana minister Krishan Kumar Bedi placed a bright turban on her head and presented a shawl and memento as local BJP leaders applauded. The World Cup trophy wasn’t physically there, but the symbolism was obvious: a girl from the city’s narrow lanes now seated on the same dais as cabinet ministers, bureaucrats and party bosses. Afterwards, Shafali climbed into an open jeep with the minister for the final stretch home, waving as the procession wound through familiar streets now draped in hoardings with her face.

All this adulation is anchored in one extraordinary night in Navi Mumbai. On November 2, Shafali’s quickfire 87 and 2/36 helped India win their first women’s World Cup. She entered the team only because the regular opener Pratika Rawal was injured in the quarterfinal. For those who know her journey from Rohtak, this ability to slip in through a side door and kick it open from within felt very on-brand.

Because long before she was India’s World Cup hero, Shafali was the little girl from Sunaar Gully in Rohtak, dodging bikes and vegetable carts in search of 22 yards of flat ground. Her father, Sanjeev Verma, runs a small jewellery shop in Rohtak. Despite the financial struggles, he kept spending time and money on his daughter’s cricket.

The turning point came in 2013, when Sanjeev took a nine-year-old Shafali to BCCI's Lahli Stadium, just outside Rohtak, to watch Sachin Tendulkar play his last Ranji Trophy match. Standing in the crowd, the child made up her mind: if cricket could make an entire stadium hold its breath for one batter, that was what she wanted to do.

Rohtak, though, was not ready for a girl who wanted to bat like that. There were no girls’ academies. Neighbourhood teams refused to play against her; parents worried she’d get hurt and they’d be blamed. So Sanjeev did what desperate parents sometimes do — he bent the rules. Around the age of nine, he cut her hair short, dressed her in boys’ kits and took her to a local academy as “one of the lads”. At that age, he reasoned, all kids looked the same. It worked. Coaches and rival teams let “him” play; soon Shafali was taking on local boys every Sunday, soaking up pace and sledging in equal measure.

Talent, once given a ray of light, grew fast. Shafali’s big-hitting in the Women’s T20 Challenges in Jaipur caught selectors’ eyes, and by 15 she was opening for India in T20 internationals, becoming one of the youngest to wear the India cap.

In 2023, she captained India’s under-19 team to their first U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup title, lifting the trophy in South Africa with the tricolour draped around her shoulders.

Through it all, Sanjeev kept repeating one dream in interviews: he wanted his daughter to be part of the first Indian women’s team to win a World Cup. Early this month, that long-odds wish finally came true.

The impact is visible back home. In Rohtak’s colonies, young girls now walk to school with plastic bats under their arms; shopkeepers discuss field placements; parents arrive at the Verma home asking how to enrol their daughters in cricket academies.

On Instagram, a recent photo shows Shafali hugging the World Cup trophy with a simple caption: “Grateful for everything.” The comments are a mix of congratulations and something new — girls calling her their “inspiration”, parents calling her “India’s Sachin in women’s cricket”.

Sunday’s roadshow in Rohtak stitched these threads together — the world champion and the city that made her. Under a half-built flyover, a crowd gathered to watch her jeep pass, showering it with petals.

Shafali’s performance also turned into rare political common ground. Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda visited her house, met her family, and batted for a DSP-level job in the Haryana Police for Shafali. The incumbent CM, Nayab Saini, also spoke to her over the phone, assuring her of all support and rewards for bringing laurels to the country and the state.