Star India batter and a consistent performer in the domestic circuit, Yastika Bhatia will be featuring in her maiden T20 World Cup. The excitement and anticipation are not lost on her.
Speaking to Times of India, she was quoted saying, “This will be my first T20 World Cup and so, I’m very excited. I had a good domestic season and I was also a part of the team for the important series against Australia. So, I was expecting this call-up and while I have not played in South Africa before, I have been told about the kind of wickets I can expect there. I am preparing accordingly, and I hope that I can help India become world champions.”
Her performances in 2022 ensured her nomination for the ICC Women’s Emerging Cricketer of the Year Award and she is glad that all her hard work has finally come to fruition and that she will be excited if she wins the award. However, she believes that keeping herself grounded and not getting complacent is something she strives to do as she feels there is a long way to go and this is just the start of her journey.
With the Women’s IPL fast approaching, she opined that rubbing shoulders with the biggest names of the game will be massive for the Indian players and it is this way that the women cricketers will grow from strength to strength and added that “It is definitely a big step forward for women’s cricket in India and these developments will give a huge boost to our sport.”
The competition in the Indian team is stiff and her place is not certain but she is known to make the most of her opportunities as seen in the Commonwealth Games and the subsequent England series. She said that 2022 was quite “the rollercoaster year” and although she had her share of ups and downs, she was fortunate to enjoy the ride but is optimistic about 2023 being a better year. Narrowly missing out on winning the gold medal stings but she believes that staying calm in pressure situations to win games regularly will be the key and the fact that the current crop of Indian players is talented makes her feel that there will undoubtedly be a strong performance in the upcoming T20 World Cup and in 2023, she said: “I will focus on improving my fitness level”.
Improvement is the central theme of Yastika Bhatia’s life and in her off-time, she often goes works on refining and sharpening her skill set and worked with Kiran More while in Vadodara. He has also helped her fine-tune her wicketkeeping and batting skills. She also shared how working with the Pandya brothers duo of Krunal and Hardik helped her massively as they were supporting and encouraging forces with their input and with the evolution of women’s cricket, their feedback gave a lot of clarity and direction, is what she added.
Last but not least, she shared her interactions with the Bollywood actor, Kartik Aaryan while he was shooting in her hometown of Vadodara and she met him briefly and they had a nice and sweet conversation and what the biggest takeaway for her about how he is grounded despite his success and said, “He is a thorough gentleman”.
Yastika Bhatia and family met Bollywood star Kartik Aaryan🤩#CricketTwitter 📸@YastikaBhatia pic.twitter.com/nabRxZXZpi
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) December 23, 2022
I am a first year postgraduate student pursuing a MA in Media and Communication Studies at Christ University, Bengaluru. I am a podcaster, blogger and an avid cricket fan. When not glued to cricket matches, you can find me submerged in books and thinking about cricket all the time.