The Brisbane Heat have signed Yastika Bhatia, an Indian wicketkeeper-batter, to replace Jess Jonassen, who is unable to play in the Women’s Big Bash League due to a hip problem. Before the Heat’s second game of the season, a match against Sydney Thunder in Sydney on November 1, Bhatia will join the team. He will stay with the team for the duration of the competition. She is the only participant from India in the competition this year.
Yastika Bhatia, a 25-year-old, joins the Heat team with four Test, 28 ODI, and 26 T20I experience. She has also played in two Twenty20 Internationals, three One-Day Internationals, and one Test on Australian soil, so she has a working familiarity with local conditions, including at the Heat’s home ground, Allan Border Field.
The Heat lost a vital player when Jonassen’s hip issue forced her to withdraw from the competition before it had officially started. The team acted quickly to fill the position with a seasoned international batter. “Being able to sign such a quality, experienced international player so close to the tournament is great boost for us,” Heat head coach Mark Sorrell said in reference to the team’s choice to sign Bhatia. Naturally, Jess will be missed, but adding another potent left-hander to our batting lineup is comforting. We are sure Yastika Bhatia will blend in well with the group because she has solid experience playing in Australia and at Allan Border Field,” Sorrell stated as cited.
In addition to Yastika Bhatia, Heat’s two other foreign additions for the season are Ireland all-rounder Orla Prendergast and England spinner Sarah Glenn.
What does the Brisbane Heat gain from Yastika Bhatia?
Bhatia played six games for the Melbourne Stars in WBBL 2024, scoring 154 runs at a strike rate of 104.76 to finish as the team’s second-highest run scorer. During that season, only Meg Lanning’s score of 158 runs was higher than hers.
The return of Yastika Bhatia to competitive cricket has been noteworthy. She missed almost eighteen months of competition after rupturing her ACL in September of last year, which included India’s 2025 ODI World Cup victory. At the June T20 World Cup in England, she made her first appearance on the international scene. As part of India’s 270-run victory over England the following month, she created history by becoming the first female player to score a Test century at Lord’s.
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Prior to this WBBL stint, Bhatia had most recently played for the Trinbago Knight Riders in the Women’s Caribbean Premier League. When she returns to the competition, she moves to the Brisbane Heat instead of the Melbourne Stars, her previous WBBL team.
