Yastika Bhatia: ‘Playing World Cups showed me what I am and what I need to do better’

Yastika Bhatia has featured in solely 13 of the 35 women’s T20Is India have performed because the begin of 2022. Two of these had been crunch matches – the Commonwealth Games final in August 2022 and the Women’s T20 World Cup semi-final in February this 12 months. Whereas it stated a bit about how Yastika match into India’s T20I plans, it additionally revealed the administration appears at her as somebody who can maintain her personal beneath strain.

“I’m nonetheless studying about methods to play in that scenario,” she says, forward of India’s white-ball tour of Bangladesh. “That often comes solely from expertise.”

Within the CWG last, Yastika walked out to bat at No. 9, with India needing 17 off 11, as a alternative for the concussed Taniya Bhatia, and was the final participant out for a five-ball 2. She was trapped lbw when she missed a reverse sweep towards Australia’s Jess Jonassen, and India fell quick by 9 runs.

“Anyone can sit exterior and say it is best to have completed this or that,” she displays. “If you end up inside, you already know what is going on on and methods to deal with the scenario.

“If that shot had come off and it [had] been a boundary, everyone would have stated one thing else. I simply take it in my stride, no matter has occurred. My intent was to win the match for the crew. That may at all times be there. I’ll at all times put my finest foot ahead, by no means the rest.”

Tackling strain on the worldwide degree is vastly totally different from that in home cricket, Yastika says. She scored 223 in six matches within the Senior Girls’s T20 Trophy, 212 in six outings within the Senior Girls’s Inter-Zonal Trophy, and 203 in four outings within the Senior Girls’s T20 Challenger Trophy within the 2022-23 season. She typically stayed unbeaten in difficult chases, together with within the last of the T20 Challenger Trophy for India D.

“On the home degree, in the event you face 4 dots after which in the event you hit a boundary on the fifth ball, you may cowl up,” Yastika says. “However on the worldwide degree, you aren’t getting boundaries simply. You need to be in your toes from the primary ball and can’t afford too many errors. That’s what brings one of the best out of you. Should you simply play for Baroda, how would you perceive your capability? You perceive that solely on the worldwide degree.”

Yastika is coming off a profitable Girls’s Premier League (WPL), the place she was a part of Mumbai Indians’ title-winning outfit. She fashioned a potent opening pair with West Indies’ Hayley Matthews, scoring 214 runs in the tournament. She flourished on the franchise beneath India captain Harmanpreet Kaur and a training set-up that made her really feel valued.

Head coach Charlotte Edwards’ clear message to Yastika – that she would play all video games within the season – helped, ving her a “increase of confidence”, she says.

“You should have seen within the WPL how that translated!” she laughs. “She gave me a number of freedom. [Edwards said] ‘You simply exit and play like a teenager would, with none strain. There are a number of good batters after you, so you needn’t simply rotate strike. Simply play your recreation and go for fours and sixes.'”

At 22 and in solely her second 12 months of worldwide cricket, Yastika has performed an ODI and T20 World Cup every, the Commonwealth Video games, and a Check – a guidelines that many aspire to tick over an extended profession. She is properly conscious of what works for her and which of her abilities she must hone.

“If I concentrate on one factor, I most of the time accomplish it. That has been one in every of my greatest strengths since childhood and I’m happy with that,” she says, reflecting on her learnings from the World Cups.

“It’s not at all times that [the expectations at world events] get fulfilled as a result of the opposite crew can be there [to win] after [putting in] a number of effort. Maybe our efforts might not be sufficient, and we have to do extra. It’s about studying from different groups or by gamers from your personal crew; what they’ve completed higher, we will study and apply [those lessons]. You solely perceive these when you undergo these conditions. Enjoying World Cups confirmed me what I’m and what I have to do higher. That was an essential expertise for my profession.”

And for occasions when issues do not go to plan, Yastika has her help system to lean on.

“I vent to my mother and father – they hear and do not say a lot, however I do know they’re there for me. They do not choose me in any respect and are like ‘Tu sab cheez se upar aayi hai toh isse bhi aa sakti hai‘ [You have overcome multiple obstacles, so this is also something you can get through]. My coaches Kiran [More] sir and Santosh [Chaughule] sir assist me by way of what’s missing in my recreation. For them, I’m their child.

“You’ll deal with your baby the identical, whether or not they have scored a century or a zero. Their [the coaches’] behaviour is similar they usually bathe me with a number of love. That offers me perception that my help would be the identical regardless of outcomes.”

The white-ball tour to Bangladesh subsequent month is the beginning of a busy season for India, one which options Tests against England and Australiaaside from white-ball collection towards South Africa and New Zealand. One eye may also be on the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh subsequent 12 months. Yastika has had a style of all of it, and she or he desires extra of it.