Shafali Verma has been asked to play fearless brand of cricket: Shikha Pandey

As 16-year-old Shafali continues to excite fans in the ongoing Women's T20 World Cup, Indian pacer Shikha Pandey has said that the youngster has been given license to play a fearless brand of cricket.

Verma smashed 39 runs off just 17 balls in the match against Bangladesh and as a result, was awarded the Player of the Match.

Pandey's remarks came as India defeated Bangladesh by 18 runs in their second match of the tournament at the WACA.

"We haven't asked her (Verma) to change anything. She's been given free licence to play her fearless brand of cricket. She's amazing. At 16 I hadn't even started training to become a cricketer. I'm very pleased to have such young fearless players in our team. It's amazing to see them doing what they did for us," International Cricket Council (ICC) quoted Pandey as saying.

"There's no baggage, that's the biggest thing, and they express themselves so well in the team. We thought we had a great score on the board to defend today because we believe in our bowling department. We knew it would be a tough target for them to reach," she added.

India registered 142/6 in their allotted twenty overs and this is the highest score of this year's tournament so far.

While defending the score, Poonam Yadav once again starred with the ball as she picked up three wickets.

India will next take on New Zealand in the tournament on Thursday, February 27.