AICHI-NAGOYA — Pratika Rawal made her T20I cricket debut for India in Dubai nine days ago. On Tuesday, she boards a flight to Japan as one of India’s starting batters for the Asian Games.
That compression tells you something about how the last fortnight has gone for Indian women’s cricket. In the time it took Rawal to play her first four internationals, India won their eighth Women’s Asia Cup title, declined to accept the trophy from ACC chairman Mohsin Naqvi in a 45-minute ceremony standoff in Dubai, and confirmed a squad for the continent’s premier multi-sport event, one that now depends on a barely-capped batter stepping in for Jemimah Rodrigues because Rodrigues tore her right hamstring in The Hundred.
Rodrigues suffered a high-grade tear while playing for Southern Brave in The Hundred. After an assessment at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, the BCCI medical team ruled her out of both the Women’s Asia Cup and the Asian Games.
Rawal, who had trained with the squad before making her debut, filled the vacancy and batted at No. 3 in Dubai. She returns to Japan in the same position. Wicketkeeper Yastika Bhatia was also omitted, with Gunalan Kamalini named as the second wicketkeeping option behind Richa Ghosh.
Harmanpreet Kaur, who captained India to gold at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, has not described the injury as a crisis. India still has the established opening partnership of Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma, with Deepti Sharma providing an important presence in the middle order.
The Women’s Asia Cup served as a valuable test against the teams India is likely to face before a medal match in Aichi. “The confidence is high,” Harmanpreet told BCCI.TV after the Dubai final.
Smriti Mandhana arrives at the Asian Games as arguably the most dangerous batter in the women’s cricket draw. She scored 59 in the Women’s Asia Cup final against Sri Lanka, her innings measured less in boundaries than in the quiet efficiency with which she helped build a 183-run total. In the same match, Shafali Verma made the tournament’s fastest half-century, reaching 50 from 24 balls. India demonstrated in Dubai that their top two represent a problem the other seven competing nations in Aichi cannot answer in six days of knockout T20 cricket.
The 2026 Asian Games women’s cricket tournament runs from September 17 to 22 at Korogi Sports Park in Aichi Prefecture, eight nations contesting a straight knockout with no group stage. India face hosts Japan in the quarter-finals on September 17. A semi-final win would bring either Bangladesh or China. Sri Lanka, the side India defeated in two finals this year, sits in the opposite half of the draw. The BCCI announced the squad following India’s Women’s T20 World Cup exit in June, locking in the core that had performed through bilateral series before the Dubai camp began.
The case for India as overwhelming favorites does not rest on the Asia Cup alone. It rests on accumulated institutional evidence. The Hangzhou gold was built by many of the same players, under the same captain, in the same knockout format. Yahoo Sports reported that India enter Aichi with the same captain who won the last Games gold, the same opening pair, the same lead spinner, and the same tactical approach that made them unbeatable in the UAE this month. What has changed is the identity of one batter and, possibly, one bowler. That is not a crisis. That is cricket squad management.
Japan, the hosts, have not beaten India in a competitive T20I. Korogi Sports Park will carry the noise of a home crowd that has followed this cricket team through the qualifying rounds and into the main event, and Japan’s development in women’s cricket has been notable across the qualifying cycle. The task on September 17 is to dismiss Mandhana and Verma inside the powerplay and keep India under 120. That task has defeated better cricket teams this summer.
Pratika Rawal, batting at three, may not be required to define the quarter-final. If Mandhana and Verma perform as they did in Dubai, Rawal will be watching from the non-striker’s end for most of the innings. If they do not, September 17 becomes her stage. Either way, nine days after her cricket debut, she stands exactly where the form she showed in Dubai earned her the right to be.
