After India were dumped out of the World Cup on Sunday, captain Harmanpreet Kaur said they needed to “rethink” their selection and strategies multiple times. On Tuesday, India announced their squad for the Asian Games – which is in three months – with exactly one change; Yastika Bhatia out, G Kamalini in.
Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. They clearly think they have a good enough side apart from Bhatia. Let’s break it down.
India’s batting problem is that they don’t have reliable players at #3 to #6. While Kaur is still capable of magic – as she produced against Australia – the middle order are prone to collapses. They lost 3 wickets in 15 balls against PAK, 3 wickets in 8 balls against NED, a wicket every 17 balls against SA, & 3 wickets in 23 balls against BAN.
Part of the problem is a lack of experienced #3s. As Veda Krishnamurthy pointed out on the post-game commentary, India are not training enough middle-order bats. Everyone wants to be an opener or a finisher in their domestic leagues. Kaur is old, Jemimah Rodrigues is inconsistent, and Amanjot Kaur is injured.
Yastika Bhatia is a backup wicketkeeper, and played at No.3 in the pre-tournament T20I series against England. But, it never felt like India trusted her. She was immediately dropped for the first World Cup game against PAK, then brought back for the other 4 games. She played at #3 for two games (against BAN & SA), played at #5 against NED, and presumably would’ve come out at #7 against AUS.
It felt a bit like a street game where your mom forces you to play with your younger sibling. They’re not good enough, so you convince them not to play the first game. Then your mom shouts at you. So you bring her on at a weak position in your lineup. Then slightly lower. Then slightly lower. Hopefully no one notices.
Bhatia’s dropping is presumably an attempt to rectify this issue. But, as prodigious as she is, the 17-year-old Kamalini seems to have been picked for her theoretical wicketkeeping abilities over her batting fit. Playing under Kaur’s Mumbai Indians at the 2026 WPL, Kamalini largely batted as an opener (77 runs in 5 innings) and was eventually dropped for her wicketkeeping gaffes.
What is especially baffling about this choice is that there are a couple of other options; Harleen Deol is the experienced if slow option (28.21 average at 115.7 SR in the WPL), Niki Prasad led India to U19 World Cup title in 2025, & Anushka Sharma scored 177 runs at a 129.2 SR in the 2026 WPL.
If the World Cup was deemed too big a moment for experimentation, why stick with a broken batting order for the Asian Games? It’s a tournament three months in the future (with at least one domestic franchise league before then), and a competition India could win in their sleep.
And this is a criticism of the one change they deigned to make, rather than the bowling and fielding issues they haven’t addressed. So much for rethinking the side.
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“Semi-final special”
🎤 Powerplay talk to ENG’s Danni Wyatt-Hodge & SA’s Shabnim Ismail to preview today’s ENG-SA semifinal. [Apple/Spotify] -
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LEGEND:
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