Time for Yastika Bhatia to prove she is more than a one-trick pony

Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, ___________, Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar - India Women’s batting unit looks sorted going into the T20 World Cup in the UAE, except for one spot you find blank. 

Yes, that No.3 spot. 

Enough has been written about India’s No.3 conundrum in the 20-over format and the Women in Blue are yet to find the right answer. India are going to the 20-over showpiece event, starting on October 3, with three options, the prime one being Yastika Bhatia.

Now, the 23-year-old doesn’t have the numbers to demand a place in the playing XI, but neither do Dayalan Hemalatha and Sajeevan Sajana. All of them are averaging less than 17 in T20Is, with Yastika and Sajana also having a strike rate of way below 100. Even at No.3, their numbers are very mediocre, so there’s no clear favourite among the three.

A couple of things that might work in Yastika’s favour are her being a left-hander and her recently improved game against pace. If India decides to go with one of the other two, Mandhana will end up being the only left-handed batter in the top six. And that’s where Yastika could come into the picture. So, what could tilt that selection in favour of Yastika?

Yastika, who made her T20I debut in October 2021, has featured in 19 T20Is and scored 214 runs at an average of 16.46 and a strike rate of 88.42. In her 14-innings career, the left-hander has batted in six different positions and it’s pretty evident by now that she doesn’t have much to offer batting at No.4 or lower. 

It’s been almost three years since Yastika made her T20I debut but the batter has never quite cemented her place in the India set-up. In her first eight T20Is, she could only manage 72 runs at a strike rate of 82.8, crossing the 15-run mark only once. 

Yastika, however, did well in the 2022 Senior Women's T20 Challenger Trophy, slamming 203 runs across four innings at a strike rate of 134.4 and kept her place in India’s T20I squad. The lack of quality left-handed batters in India also helped Yastika’s case, but she was once again found out against quality opponents. 

She featured in 21 T20s in 2023 and could only operate at an average of 20.52 and a strike rate of 102.3. Even in the inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League, Yastika scored only 214 runs in 10 innings, not managing a single fifty. Something had to change, and it finally did in the 2024 edition of the WPL.

The left-hander worked on her game against pace, especially in the powerplay. Yastika operated at a strike rate of 179.03 against fast bowlers in the first six overs, which was clearly the best among all batters. She hit a boundary against pace in the powerplay in every 2.8 deliveries. 26* off 18, 31 off 15, 25* off 19 and 30* off 18 - this is what Yastika did in the powerplay in four of her eight innings.   

Howbeit, that strike rate against pace dropped to 96.15 after the first phase. Against spin, Yastika’s strike rate was still only 85. But for the first time in her 20-over career, the batter showed she has something to offer if used in the right manner. 

The Indian team management gave her the No.3 spot in the first T20I against Bangladesh in April, and the batter responded with 36 off 29 - her highest score for the Women in Blue in the 20-over format. Just when it felt like Yastika was finally starting to find her groove, she suffered a grade one tear of the Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL) in her left knee and was ruled out of the entire tour. 

Yastika even missed the series against South Africa and the T20 Asia Cup in July. She hasn’t played any competitive cricket since then, and in her absence, India handed over the No.3 slot to Hemalatha. In seven innings at that position, the 29-year-old scored 139 runs @ 23.16. She went at a strike rate of more than 150 in three of those innings.

Now, those numbers are decent, but still not good enough to cement her place in the XI. Uma Chetry and Sajana also got an innings each at No.3 but didn’t do much. Hemalatha not completely capitalising on her opportunities has kept Yastika in the hunt. Former India Women's head coach WV Raman, too, feels India should go with Yastika at No.3.

“What they did well was give a string of chances to Hemalatha at No.3 because of the injury to Yastika Bhatia. I wouldn’t look beyond Yastika for a simple reason: she’s a fantastic team player, and she did really well in the (2022) 50-over World Cup (178 runs in six innings @ 29.66) with whatever role was assigned to her,” Raman told Cricket.com. 

“She is versatile. She was sent at the top of the order, at No.3 and sent to get runs quickly. Without a doubt, she adapted to her role very well. I think she will perhaps be ideally suited for that No.3 role for a couple of reasons: she is a good player of pace bowling and plays horizontal bat shots well, which is important if you are a No.3 batter. 

“Also, the fact that she’s a left-hander at the top of the order helps, too. You do have Smriti Mandhana; in the event that her wicket falls and the team wants to maintain a left-right combination, you would have Yastika filling that void.”

A good batter of pace bowling who can play those horizontal shots, Yastika showed glimpses of that in this year’s WPL. But all of this comes with a catch, that being that she still is unproven at the international level. The upcoming T20 World Cup couldn't have come at a better time for her to show the world that she is more than a one-trick pony, and put an end to the No.3 debate that till now has caused the selectors major headaches. 

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