Dropped following poor returns last year, big-hitting opener Shafali Verma “definitely” remains in the scheme of things, Indian women’s team captain Smriti Mandhana said on Thursday.

Mandhana is leading the Indian team in the absence of Harmanpreet Kaur, who has been rested for the three-match ODI series against Ireland, along with pacer Renuka Thakur. Known for her penchant to go after the bowlers from the get-go, Shafali was dropped from the squad for the ODI series against Australia in December. “Harman is rested. Shefali in the last two or three one-day series, she’s not been part of the squad. Pratika [Rawal] in the last series has done really well in her absence, but definitely Shafali scored a lot of runs in domestic cricket, so she’s definitely in the scheme of things. I’m really happy that she went back and got those runs,” Mandhana said on the eve of the series opener at Rajkot yesterday.