Twelve years after a nine-year-old Shafali Verma begged her father to take her to Lahli to see Sachin Tendulkar, the Rohtak girl returned the favour, gifting her idol a World Cup in his own backyard.

As India’s young middle-order star Jemimah Rodrigues took her side to the brink of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 title, a video of her calling maestro Sachin Tendulkar her inspiration for dreaming of ...