Yastika Bhatia out of Australia ODIs with wrist injury; Uma Chetry called up

Wicketkeeper-batter Yastika Bhatia has been ruled out of India’s upcoming ODI series in Australia due to a wrist injury she picked up during the ongoing WBBL. In her place, India have called up Uma Chetry, who is uncapped in the format.

Chetry has played four T20Is, all this year. Her debut was against South Africa in July. Earlier this month, she was the second-highest run-getter in the domestic T20 Challenger Trophy with 231 runs at a strike rate of 154.00. She also scored the only hundred in the competition, a 122 off 71 balls.

Chetry also has the experience of touring Australia, with India A side in August, even though her returns were underwhelming. In four matches across formats, she scored 7 and 11 in T20s, 16 in the one-dayer, and 2 and 47 in the four-day game.

Bhatia was the second-highest run-getter for Melbourne Stars – despite missing the last three games – scoring 154 runs in six outings at a strike rate of 104.76. Stars, however, finished at the bottom of the points table with two wins from ten matches.

Before her WBBL stint, Bhatia played the three-match ODI series against New Zealand at home and scored 84 runs in three innings. She was part of the T20 World Cup squad but didn’t get a game.

The first two ODIs against Australia will be played at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane, on December 5 and 8. The third and final match will be played at the WACA ground in Perth on December 11.

India Women squad for Australia ODIs

Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Smriti Mandhana (vice-capt), Priya Punia, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harleen Deol, Richa Ghosh (wk), Tejal Hasabnis, Deepti Sharma, Minnu Mani, Priya Mishra, Radha Yadav, Titas Sadhu, Arundhati Reddy, Renuka Singh, Saima Thakor, Uma Chetry (wk)