India Women drop Yastika Bhatia and pick G Kamalini in Asian Games squad

India have dropped Yastika Bhatia and picked G Kamalini as their back-up wicketkeeper-batter for the Asian Games women’s cricket competition, which will be played in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, in September. This is the only major change from the squad that exited the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup in the group stage.

Offspin-bowling allrounder Shreyanka Patil, meanwhile, has been picked in the squad pending a fitness clearance. Patil was ruled out of the World Cup after suffering an ankle ligament injury during India’s match against Netherlands. Legspinner Prema Rawat, who replaced Patil and played one match in the World Cup, has not been picked in the Asian Games squad.

Bhatia played three matches at the World Cup, and scored 41 runs at an average of 13.66 and a strike rate of 117.14. She shuffled between Nos. 3 and 5 in a middle-order combination where India never settled on a clear role for her or Jemimah Rodrigues.

The 17-year-old Kamalini came into prominence over her first two seasons with Mumbai Indians in the WPL, and has played one T20I so far, during the home series against Sri Lanka in December 2025. She opened the batting in that game, scoring a run-a-ball 12. So far in her 15-match T20 career, Kamalini has either opened (five innings) or batted in the lower order (six innings at Nos. 7 and 8), and scored 119 runs at 14.87.

India squad for 2026 Asian Games

Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Smriti Mandhana (vice-capt), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), G Kamalini (wk), Bharti Fulmali, Sree Charani, Renuka Singh, Kranti Gaud, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil (subject to fitness clearance), Radha Yadav, Nandani Sharma.

Source link