India Women&#8217;s T20 World Cup squad &#8211; What made India recall Yastika Bhatia and Radha Yadav?

India’s squad for the upcoming Ladies’s T20 World Cup had a few surprises, together with a maiden call-up for Nandani Sharma and the recall of two gamers who have not performed worldwide cricket for some time. With a settled opening mixture, and a strong and skilled center order, there have been questions round another spots, and we check out how these positions have been crammed.

Why Radha Yadav was recalled

Radha Yadav final performed a T20I on the tour of England final 12 months. She made it to the Ladies’s ODI World Cup aspect however was not the popular left-arm spinner. Her athleticism and batting potential tilted scales in her favour previously however the wealth of left-arm spinners at India’s disposal meant her lack of wickets was not a possibility price they have been prepared to bear any extra.

With Amanjot Kaur and later Kashvee Gautam round, India didn’t want their left-arm spinners to essentially allrounders. N Shree Charani established herself as the first selection over the previous 12 months in each white-ball codecs and India additionally handed Vaishnavi Sharma a cap in each ODIs and T20Is.

Within the meantime, Radha used WPL 2026 to showcase her potential. She scored her maiden WPL fifty, whereas batting at No. 5 for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. She additionally returned an economic system charge of seven.78 in a match which noticed some excessive scores, however for less than two wickets, and missed the excursions of Australia and South Africa.

As a substitute, she captained India A to the Rising Stars Asia Cup title in Bangkok. There she was the joint top-wicket taker along with her ten wickets. Then, enjoying for West Zone within the Senior Ladies’s Inter-Zonal Multi-Day Trophy, she took 12 wickets and scored 224 runs in 4 innings, together with a century. She completed second on each the batting and bowling charts.

With current accidents to Amanjot (in Australia) and Gautam (in South Africa), India appeared in the direction of the seasoned Radha to fill the allrounder’s position.

Radha Yadav had a powerful WPL with the bat this 12 months•BCCI

„Radha performed just a few home tournaments and captained India A to Bangkok,“ chief selector Amita Sharma mentioned on the press convention on Saturday. „These performances of hers confirmed that her bowling is in a greater rhythm. Expertise additionally issues. In Amanjot’s absence, we would have liked an allrounder, therefore we added her.“

Captain Harmanpreet Kaur concurred: „Now we have received Radha again within the aspect as a result of she can be an allrounder who can contribute with bat, ball and on the sphere. Amanjot’s alternative is difficult to search out, however we are attempting to stability the workforce with the gamers out there.“

Yastika Bhatia wins the wicketkeepers‘ musical chairs

Ever since Yastika Bhatia was sidelined by a collection of accidents final 12 months, India have needed to shuffle their back-up keeper. Assam’s Uma Chetry was a part of the quite a few squads since final 12 months, together with the World Cup-winning aspect. India additionally handed 17-year-old G Kamalini a T20I debut final December, even when not as a chosen wicketkeeper. However Bhatia’s stature because the No. 2 wicketkeeper in India was undisputed.

She has been out of motion since August 2025 and underwent an ACL surgical procedure final October. However as soon as she regained health, in Bhatia the selectors noticed not only a wicketkeeper but in addition a top-order batting choice as she has batted within the prime three in seven of her 14 T20I innings.

„Yastika is a bit more skilled,“ Amita mentioned. „Aside from [being] a wicketkeeper, she offers us a top-order batter choice, so we went with Yastika.“

What titled the scales in Fulmali’s favour?

Bharti Fulmali was India's only six-hitter till the final over of their innings, South Africa vs India, 5th women's T20I, Johannesburg, April 27, 2026

Bharti Fulmali not too long ago performed T20Is on the tour of South Africa•Creimas for BCCI

Amanjot’s absence was a double whammy for India. It robbed them of an additional seam choice, and a lower-middle order batter. Energy-hitters who can end video games off are nonetheless onerous to search out in India; Richa Ghosh has been shouldering that accountability in the previous few years, however India would ideally need one other boundary-hitter within the decrease order to share the burden with Ghosh.

Enter Bharti Fulmali, who ended her seven-year exile from worldwide cricket earlier this 12 months when she was picked for South Africa. Till the current bilateral collection, Fulmali had performed solely two T20Is, each again in March 2019.

„Amanjot was our key participant. It was very tough to search out somebody in her place however we tried somebody like Bharti,“ Harmanpreet mentioned. „Bharti has completed rather well in home cricket. She has confirmed herself. She has completed nicely within the WPL and gained her workforce just a few essential matches.

„We would have liked a batter at No. 6 or 7, and she or he suits that slot utterly. She did nicely in one of many two alternatives she received [in South Africa].“

In her newest avatar, Fulmali has remodeled herself right into a harmful finisher. She struck at 172.72 in WPL 2025 and at 146.91 in WPL 2026 batting within the center and lower-middle order for Gujarat Giants. For context, Ghosh’s strike charge within the WPL this 12 months was 151.20 and Harmanpreet’s at 150.66. Extra notable was that Fulmali hit eight sixes within the 81 balls she confronted on this 12 months’s WPL. That paved the best way for an India comeback, and a maiden T20 World Cup look beckons.

„The one middle-order slot that we had, we felt that Fulmali was a greater match,“ Amita mentioned. „Harleen [Deol] continues to be in our scheme of issues however in T20s we felt Fulmali was a greater choice for that position.“

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

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