India’s key batter Shafali Verma, got a huge blow when she was dropped from the Indian team for the Australia Tour. Verma was already going through poor form and had many inconsistent performances in international cricket. She even failed to register a single half-century in the last 10 innings played with the highest score of 43 in T20 World Cup match against Sri Lanka.

When Shafali Verma was dropped she was replaced by Pratika Rawal, who performed excellently well in the third ODI against Ireland.

In an interview with Indian Express, Shafali revealed how her father Sanjeev Verma suffered a heart attack just two days before the squad announcement.

“It’s not easy to get over it. I didn’t want to reveal because my father had a heart attack about two days before I got dropped from the team. I hid the news from him till he got better. He was in the hospital. I told him a week later,” Shafali Verma said

Shafali told that once her father got to know about her getting dropped, he motivated her to focus on the game despite the fact he himself was undergoing through the recovery process.

“Father knows everything. Sometimes as kids even we forget our strengths, but they don’t forget,” Shafali said. “He reminded me of the workouts and drills from my childhood… These are my strengths, and sometimes you need to work on them to remember how good you are at them.” she added