India picked Yastika Bhatia as their main wicketkeeper for the upcoming tour of Bangladesh. She talked to Karunya Keshav on her journey, choices, and aspirations.

“I want to be the No.1 keeper for India,” Yastika Bhatia told Wisden.com recently. Now, on India’s limited-overs tour of Bangladesh, she can take steps towards realising that ambition.

Yastika is one of two wicketkeepers named this week in the India squad to take on Bangladesh in three ODIs and as many T20Is. The other is Uma Chetry, who got her maiden call-up.

Yastika has so far kept in a little under half of her 35 appearances for India, as well as in the Women’s Premier League for Mumbai Indians. For the national side, she has shared the gloves with Richa Ghosh and Taniya Bhatia.

But with Taniya falling in and out of favour, and the swashbuckling Ghosh left out of the side for reasons not made clear by the BCCI, Yastika finds herself as the senior keeper in Bangladesh.

And she’s primed to make the most of it.

Since her international debut in 2021, Yastika herself hasn’t quite sealed her role in the side. While she often comes in at No.3, she has batted in every slot from one to six; in the Commonwealth Games final, where she was a substitute for Taniya, she was slotted in at No.9; she has been asked to step in for Shafali Verma and give the innings an early impetus; and for Smriti Mandhana as the left-handed opener. She is part of a merry-go-round of candidates for the middle order, and has also been tasked with finishing the game.

To her credit, she has embraced what is asked of her and remains fiercely ambitious. Once known as an accumulator, she’s added additional gears to her game.

“The biggest goal is to win the World Cup for India. The other goal that comes with that is to be a matchwinner for India, like Harry di (Harmanpreet Kaur) or Smriti di (Mandhana). They are dependable – the team can depend on them to move the match in any direction, so I want to be such a player who wins the game from any situation,” she says.

“I want to be the No.1 keeper for India also and the world. That is also my goal.

“And I want to become the fittest player in India.”

Yastika’s ambitions have been fuelled by a strong WPL, where she was the third-highest run-scorer among Indians, after Kaur and Verma. She had six catches and seven stumpings too.

She worked on improving her keeping and was encouraged to communicate with the bowlers about plans. As a batter, she grew in confidence as coaches gave her the permission to fail and teammates praised her classical shot-making.

In a tournament meant to showcase India’s young female cricketers, she finished among the brightest, to be named Emerging Player for the season.

In so many ways, Yastika encapsulates the change in Indian women’s cricket in the past few years.

Before she broke into the Indian team, when in high school, she faced a choice so common for many in the fraternity.

“Managing studies with cricket was the most difficult thing I’ve faced in my life. My grandfather wanted me to be a doctor so I used to study a lot,” she says. Reeling off a packed schedule she followed for years, she adds: “I have hustled a lot for this. But after class 12, I took a decision that this is not going to continue. I have to give my full time to cricket.

“I cannot do well in both fields (study and sport), so I have to choose. I chose cricket and that was a good decision.”

She threw herself into rigorous training and gave herself three years to make it big in cricket; the call up came in two.

That she could make the choice and make a career out of it, with no regrets, is a sign of the times.

The 22-year-old joined our chat after wrapping up sponsor commitments. With the INR 1.5 crore she earned in the auction, she bought her parents a home in Baroda. Apart from her mother (a retired bank official), and her father, who manage her finances and schedule, she also has a team from Baseline, the athlete management firm, handling her interests. And this just a few years into her career.

If you suspect the pressure is a lot for young shoulders to bear, know that it can be. Yastika is working with a sports psychologist to help her define her goals and build action plans to realise them, while also making sure she enjoys the game.

“I’m not going to stop here,” she insists. “I have to achieve a lot.”