India Women’s T20 World Cup squad – What made India recall Yastika Bhatia and Radha Yadav?

India’s squad for the upcoming Women’s T20 World Cup had a couple of surprises, including a maiden call-up for Nandani Sharma and the recall of two players who haven’t played international cricket for a while. With a settled opening combination, and a solid and experienced middle order, there were questions around some other spots, and we take a look at how those positions were filled.

Why Radha Yadav was recalled

Radha Yadav last played a T20I on the tour of England last year. She made it to the Women’s ODI World Cup side but was not the preferred left-arm spinner. Her athleticism and batting ability tilted scales in her favour in the past but the wealth of left-arm spinners at India’s disposal meant her lack of wickets was not an opportunity cost they were willing to bear any more.

With Amanjot Kaur and later Kashvee Gautam around, India did not need their left-arm spinners to necessarily allrounders. N Shree Charani established herself as the primary choice over the past year in both white-ball formats and India also handed Vaishnavi Sharma a cap in both ODIs and T20Is.

In the meantime, Radha used WPL 2026 to showcase her ability. She scored her maiden WPL fifty, while batting at No. 5 for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. She also returned an economy rate of 7.78 in a tournament which saw some high scores, but for only two wickets, and missed the tours of Australia and South Africa.

Instead, she captained India A to the Rising Stars Asia Cup title in Bangkok. There she was the joint top-wicket taker with her ten wickets. Then, playing for West Zone in the Senior Women’s Inter-Zonal Multi-Day Trophy, she took 12 wickets and scored 224 runs in four innings, including a century. She finished second on both the batting and bowling charts.

With recent injuries to Amanjot (in Australia) and Gautam (in South Africa), India looked towards the seasoned Radha to fill the allrounder’s role.

“Radha played a few domestic tournaments and captained India A to Bangkok,” chief selector Amita Sharma said at the press conference on Saturday. “Those performances of hers showed that her bowling is in a better rhythm. Experience also matters. In Amanjot’s absence, we needed an allrounder, hence we added her.”

Captain Harmanpreet Kaur concurred: “We have got Radha back in the side because she is also an allrounder who can contribute with bat, ball and on the field. Amanjot’s replacement is hard to find, but we are trying to balance the team with the players available.”

Yastika Bhatia wins the wicketkeepers’ musical chairs

Ever since Yastika Bhatia was sidelined by a series of injuries last year, India have had to shuffle their back-up keeper. Assam’s Uma Chetry was part of the numerous squads since last year, including the World Cup-winning side. India also handed 17-year-old G Kamalini a T20I debut last December, even if not as a designated wicketkeeper. But Bhatia’s stature as the No. 2 wicketkeeper in India was undisputed.

She has been out of action since August 2025 and underwent an ACL surgery last October. But once she regained fitness, in Bhatia the selectors saw not just a wicketkeeper but also a top-order batting option as she has batted in the top three in seven of her 14 T20I innings.

“Yastika is a little more experienced,” Amita said. “Apart from [being] a wicketkeeper, she gives us a top-order batter option, so we went with Yastika.”

What titled the scales in Fulmali’s favour?

Amanjot’s absence was a double whammy for India. It robbed them of an extra seam option, and a lower-middle order batter. Power-hitters who can finish games off are still hard to find in India; Richa Ghosh has been shouldering that responsibility in the last few years, but India would ideally want another boundary-hitter in the lower order to share the burden with Ghosh.

Enter Bharti Fulmali, who ended her seven-year exile from international cricket earlier this year when she was picked for South Africa. Until the recent bilateral series, Fulmali had played only two T20Is, both back in March 2019.

“Amanjot was our key player. It was very difficult to find someone in her place but we tried someone like Bharti,” Harmanpreet said. “Bharti has done really well in domestic cricket. She has proven herself. She has done well in the WPL and won her team a few crucial matches.

“We needed a batter at No. 6 or 7, and she fits that slot completely. She did well in one of the two opportunities she got [in South Africa].”

In her latest avatar, Fulmali has transformed herself into a dangerous finisher. She struck at 172.72 in WPL 2025 and at 146.91 in WPL 2026 batting in the middle and lower-middle order for Gujarat Giants. For context, Ghosh’s strike rate in the WPL this year was 151.20 and Harmanpreet’s at 150.66. More notable was that Fulmali hit eight sixes in the 81 balls she faced in this year’s WPL. That paved the way for an India comeback, and a maiden T20 World Cup appearance beckons.

“The one middle-order slot that we had, we felt that Fulmali was a better fit,” Amita said. “Harleen [Deol] is still in our scheme of things but in T20s we felt Fulmali was a better option for that role.”

S Sudarshanan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @Sudarshanan7

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