Jiostar media day

Cricket World Cup India: Former West Indies’ fast bowler Ian Bishop has urged Shafali Varma to seize an unexpected opportunity and make a decisive impact for India in their 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup semi-final against Australia, to be played at the DY Patil Stadium on Thursday.

India suffered a big blow when in-form opener Pratika Rawal was ruled out of the semi-final clash against Australia due to ankle and knee injuries suffered while fielding in the league match against Bangladesh, which was eventually washed out due to rain.

Pratika’s injury-enforced absence has meant that Shafali, who hasn’t played an ODI in nearly a year, was drafted into the Indian World Cup squad. Shafali is coming off playing Senior Women’s T20 Trophy games for Haryana and had made a brisk 70 off 49 deliveries in a four-wicket win (via DLS method) for India A over New Zealand in a World Cup warm-up match at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru.