Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur have shared their insights on India’s historic Women’s World Cup triumph, revealing the inspiration, mindset and key decisions behind the title-winning campaign, including Sachin Tendulkar’s advice and Shafali’s match-clinching contribution.
Publication date: June 10, 2026, 12:38 pm
Hyderabad: Shafali Verma, a late addition to the Indian team, was instrumental with both bat and ball for the Women in Blue.
made history by winning their first ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup title.
As they now set their sights on lifting India’s first ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues reflected on JioStar’s ‘Unstoppable’ on starting afresh in the final, the team’s approach to the big game and the decisive call to
Give the ball to Shafali Verma.
Indian batsman Jemimah Rodrigues revealed Sachin Tendulkar’s advice ahead of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2026 final:
“Sachin sir called my coach Prashant Shetty. He asked him to tell me that he understood that the last few days had been a lot for me, the
great blow against Australia in the semi-final, the joy of beating them. But it reminded me that the work was not done yet,” Jemimah said.
“We still had a final to win. He said, try to put that aside and start from scratch. That message really helped me reset my mind. I understood
that what you did before won’t win you the next game. You must treat each match as a new beginning. That advice from a legend gave me so
A lot of clarity before the final,” he said.
Indian batsman Shafali Varma spoke about her father’s voice note before the final. “We had two days off before the final. My father sent me a voice note. He told me, ‘Just work hard. Do your best on the field. And it has to be in writing that Shafali Verma helped India win the World Cup.’ That voice note gave me more fire. I knew I had to perform not only for myself, but also for him and the team. He pushed me to give it my all.
that he had on the field.”Indian batsman Shafali Varma spoke about her father’s voice note before the final,” she recalled.
“We had two days off before the final. My dad sent me a voice note. He said, ‘Just work hard. Do your best on the field. And it has to be that way.’
written that Shafali Verma helped India win the World Cup. That voice note gave me more fire. I knew that I had to act not only to
for me, but for him and for the team. It pushed me to give everything I had on the field,” Shafali revealed.
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur spoke about the team’s approach ahead of the big match: “In the past, we have played South Africa many times and we have won most of those matches. The league match against them had its ups and downs, but we were still confident. The only thing we discussed was, if we bat first in the final, don’t expect to score 300 runs. If you have that expectation, you will end up making mistakes,” she said.
Handing the ball to Shafali Varma at a crucial moment in the final, Harmanpreet said: “Though we had five proper bowlers, we didn’t
I know why his name kept coming to mind. I felt like it was her day, so I had to use her somehow. Then Laura Wolvaardt and Sune Luus started.
build a partnership. That was the moment I knew I had to bring Shafali.”
“If that partnership grew, our chances of winning would decrease. Chasing 300 on that sticky pitch wasn’t that difficult in the second innings because
of the dew. It had rained and the field was wet. I was doing a lot from the surface. So I asked Shafali if he wanted to bowl. She said yes with great confidence: ‘I will bowl and take wickets,’ the Indian captain said.
