India women's Asian Games 2026 squad: Yastika Bhatia dropped

India have dropped their left-handed top-order batter, Yastika Bhatia, and gone for G Kamalini as their back-up wicket-keeper for the upcoming Asian Games 2026 women’s cricket competition, which will be played in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, in September. This is the only major change in the squad that failed to progress into the semifinals of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026.

The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side ended the T20 World Cup 2026 campaign with two defeats against South Africa and Australia, which failed to see them get through to the knockout stage of the tournament.

Who replaces Yashtika Bhatia? India's 15-member Asian Games 2026 squad in full

Yashtika played four games in the T20 World Cup and returned with 41 runs in three innings that he batted against the Netherlands, South Africa, and Bangladesh. That has pushed the selectors to go with the back-up wicket-keeper, G Kamilini, who has featured in just one game in the shortest format against Sri Lanka in 2025.

Shreyanka Patil, the spin all-rounder, has been picked in the squad pending fitness clearance. She was ruled out of the event after suffering an ankle ligament injury during their game against the Dutch. Leg-spinner Prema Rawat, who replaced Patil and played just one match in the World Cup, wasn’t considered for the Asian Games.

India never looked settled in their middle-order combination, as in the final group-stage match against Australia, Bhati dropped to below six and didn’t bat in the innings.

Kamilini, meanwhile, has either opened or batted in the lower order (six innings at no. 7 and 8) and scored 119 runs at 14.87 in his 15-match T20 career.

The Women’s cricket event at the 2026 Asian Games will run from September 17 to 22. The Gold medal will be contested by Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and China. India won the gold medal at the women’s cricket event in the 2023 Asian Games, having beaten Sri Lanka by 19 runs in the final.

India squad for the Asian Games 2026-

Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Smriti Mandhana (vc), 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

India Women's T20 WC 2026 report card: The form that decided the Asian Games cut

India started their T20 World Cup 2026 campaign with a massive win by 64 runs against the arch-rivals, Pakistan, where they were clinical in all three departments of the game. They continued the good work with another huge victory by 95 runs against the Netherlands.

Their first defeat of the event came in Manchester, where they lost to the Proteas by six wickets, thanks to several dropped catches and poor batting in the middle overs. After a win over Bangladesh, they were needed to beat Australia at Lord’s.

They finished the batting well against the six-time champions, but on a small ground, they failed to defend the score and experienced the defeat by six wickets. In the Asian Games 2026, they will hope for a better performance and a gold medal at the end.