Why Yastika Bhatia is Not Playing IND vs PAK ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 Match?

The highly anticipated encounter between India and Pakistan has started in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026. The match is being played at Edgbaston, Birmingham. India's captain Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and elected to bat first.

However, the Women in Blue made a notable change as they left out the top order batter Yastika Bhatia out of the playing 11. Recently, she played in both the warm-up games as well as the T20I series against England but didn't find a place against Pakistan.

Why Yastika Bhatia is Not Playing Against Pakistan?

Before this game, India Women had a choice to pick one player between Yastika Bhatia and Bharti Fulmali. However, the team management picked Fulmali due to her ability to finish games and score quick runs down the order.

The Women in Blue already have some quality top order batters like Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur, two of the best women cricketers. Hence, Yastika didn't feature in the playing 11 for the IND-W vs PAK-W match. Yastika Bhatia replacement Bharti Fulmali gives an X-factor to the team due to her power-hitting ability.

Yastika returned to the Indian team during the T20I series against England recently. It was her first match after injury. She was impressive while batting at No. 3 and showed her readiness for the ongoing Women's T20 World Cup.

Yastika is not just a top order batter but also provides the team with the wicketkeeping option. She is the second wicketkeeper in the India squad for Women's T20 World Cup after Richa Ghosh.

Yastika Bhatia In Good Form

Yastika scored 36 and 15 during the warm-up games against West Indies and England respectively. These knocks against two of the best women's cricket teams in the world showed that she is in form and can replace any player in case of injury or other reasons.

During the T20I series against England leading up to this tournament, Yastika Bhatia scored 119 runs at an average of 39.66 and emerged as the highest run-scorer. The left-handed batter might not have played in the ongoing IND vs PAK match but she might have a role to play later during the tournament.