G Kamalini picked in Asian Games squad

India have picked 17-year-old wicketkeeper-batter G Kamalini in their 15-member squad for the 2026 Asian Games, scheduled to be held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, in September. Kamalini replaces Yastika Bhatia in the only change from the squad that bowed out in the group stage of the Women's T20 World Cup.

Kamalini was part of the India A squad that toured England this month and scored an unbeaten 35 in the T20 victory at Northampton. She finished third on the run charts at the 2025 U19 Women's World Cup and was signed by Mumbai Indians for INR 1.6 crore at the 2025 auction before being retained ahead of the 2026 mega auction. She has played 14 matches across two seasons for the two-time champions, aggregating 107 runs at a strike rate of 104.90 in the WPL. Kamalini made her senior debut in the final T20I against Sri Lanka in Trivandrum last December.

Her selection comes at the expense of Bhatia, who managed just 41 runs from three innings at an average of 13.67 in the World Cup.

Meanwhile, offspinner Shreyanka Patil, ruled out of the World Cup with an ankle ligament injury, has been included subject to proving her fitness.

India head into the competition as defending champions, having won gold at the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (WK), G. Kamalini (WK), Bharti Fulmali, Sree Charani, Renuka Thakur, Kranti Gaud, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil*, Radha Yadav, Nandni Sharma