WORLD CUP DIARIES
Follow UsSeptember 13, 2018. India opted to bat at Galle against Sri Lanka but it looked like a bad idea. They lost four wickets for 66 runs by the 23rd over. With the series on the line, 20-year old Taniya Bhatia walked in to join captain Mithali Raj in the middle. She had made her ODI debut just two days ago and batted thrice in her international career despite playing 15 T20Is until then.
Even though the challenge was daunting, the youngster batted with unfazed ease. While an experienced Raj batted with extra caution, Bhatia was fearless in her approach. She smashed nine boundaries reaching her maiden international fifty while adding 76 runs with the skipper. She further added 37 runs with D. Hemalatha which built the platform for India’s score of 219.
Sri Lanka looked all set to chase down the total as they stood 13 runs away from the target with 18 balls remaining. Bhatia once again turned the match on its head when Nilakshi de Silva top-edged a slog towards fine leg region. The wicketkeeper swiveled around from her spot, made up ground and dived to take the catch.
Bhatia added the finishing touch to the match, stumping Inoka Ranaweera as India won the match by just seven runs and wrapped up the series.
That match should’ve cemented Bhatia’s place as India’s No.1 and it did for a while. She was an automatic choice for the 2020 T20 World Cup, thus becoming the first Chandigarh woman player to feature in a World Cup.
Bhatia has all the best qualities of an elite wicketkeeper. She can keep close to the stumps against pacers and can read spin very well. She has the agility and lightning-fast reflexes for stumpings and snaring feather edges.
It is hard to forget her sensational diving catch to dismiss England opener Lauren Winfield-Hill in the one-off Test at Bristol last year. Coming from a family of glovemen, it’s not surprising. Her father Sanjay was a reserve keeper for Punjab and was her uncle.
These skills secured her place in India’s playing XI in all the T20Is they played in 2019 and was part of the team that finished runners-up in the 2020 T20 World Cup. However, in an era where being specialist wicketkeeper is not enough, Bhatia’s playing chances have lessened to an extent.
Barring her match-winning knock against Sri Lanka in 2018, her top scores have been 46 in a T20I in the same series and a 25 against England in the 2019 ODI series at home.
She has played 50 T20Is, but has played 19 ODIs over a period of three years. Is lack of batting ability, especially in ODIs, Bhatia’s biggest flaw? Well, the answer is a three-fold one.
The women’s team selection committee has been constantly chopping and changing the wicket-keeper line-up since the last ODI World Cup. While Bhatia and teenager Richa Ghosh got the longer leash in the past two years, selectors have also played Nuzhat Parween and Sushma Verma which has disrupted the continuity with the playing combinations.
Batting in the lower middle-order or in the tail has also contributed to Bhatia’s low numbers in both the formats. Though she has opened and played at No.3 and 4 in T20Is, the team management seems to have fixated on the No.8 spot for the youngster which leaves her with very less time to affect the game.
In ODIs, she has never batted above No.6 which further suggests the team’s lack of trust in her hitting ability. Richa Ghosh, her competitor within the team, has a better showing in the middle-order with two fifties from seven innings and a strike rate of 105. In contrast to Bhatia’s T20I strike rates between 66-86 while batting in the middle-order. Ghosh, meanwhile, has scored at a rate surplus of 120 batting from No. 5-8.
Despite the big gap in batting performances, it’s hard to ignore the value Bhatia brings to the team as a keeper and the potential to develop as a batter. When she was shunted to No. 10 in the lone Test against England last year, Bhatia played a part in India’s dramatic draw with an unbeaten partnership of 104 with fellow debutant Sneh Rana. Considering the fact that India were following on and clinging on to two wickets before Tea, Bhatia’s 44 runs were gold dust.
Going into the 2022 World Cup in New Zealand, Bhatia’s position in the playing XI is not secure owing to Ghosh’s batting credentials in the lower middle-order and the abundance of options in the top order. However, Bhatia is the best reserve keeper option India could have in the mega tournament where they aim to reach another final.
