Crossroads at the final: Verma ascends, Bhatia seeks one last chance

In a World Cup year, albeit of the longer white-ball format, two out-of-favour India openers were eyeing their way back into the national reckoning via the WPL route. Both will have one last shot, in the WPL 2025 final on Saturday, to strengthen their claim but while Shafali Verma has put her best foot forward since being dropped from the Indian setup, the same cannot be said of Yastika Bhatia who's suffered two major injuries to fall back in the pecking order over the last season.

Verma went on to make runs for fun in the one-day domestic competitions before turning up at the WPL in her true element. She had a string of 40s and each of those dismissals must've hurt her for reasons beyond just the numbers. She eventually played a match-winning hand of 80* in a clinical dismantling of RCB where she carried her bat through the chase to firmly put her name back in the ring. At least she now has her Delhi Capitals' captain Meg Lanning's endorsement after a second successive 300-run season at an improved average of nearly 43.

"She has been excellent for us, and really got us some really nice starts with the bat," Lanning, one half of the most successful opening pairing in WPL history, said of her partner. "She looks like she has been really enjoying her cricket, a big smile on her face a lot of the time which is always a good sign I think. She is a very important part of our team on and off the field and I have really loved seeing her do well and no doubt she has got another big innings in her for tomorrow night."

For Bhatia, an indifferent WPL could be the third deterrent in the year after a knee injury that sidelined for five months and a finger fracture at her maiden WBBL gig that ruled her out of the rest of India's ODI assignments in the season culminating in this league. The left-handed wicketkeeper-bat has only amassed a total of 80 runs in nine WPL matches before the final – with a high score of 15 – and inadvertently binned her case.

Mumbai Indians themselves lost their patience with Bhatia after a string of low scores and PowerPlay dismissals to demote her to a middle-orders role to find her groove back before she found herself opening again in the Eliminator. Harmanpreet Kaur, Bhatia's MI and India captain, though appears to have her back.

"These kind of conditions suit Yastika really well because, the way she bats, the red-soil wicket has always given her a lot of runs," the 35-year-old said. "I think that was the biggest reason we wanted to bring her back to the opening role. She gave us a good start. She is looking really good and I am sure these pitches will definitely suit her and she will definitely give us a good start if we give her one more chance [in the final]."

Of the many subplots in the rematch of the inaugural WPL final, this is an intriguing one looking at the bigger picture. Under usual circumstances, Bhatia may have only been considered for a No. 3 or a more proper middle-order role but Verma's concurrent absence from the Indian team saw Pratika Rawal establish herself with an impressive 444-run tally in just two ODI series. And with Rawal not putting a foot wrong since her India debut, there could only be vacancy for one additional opener – team vice-captain Smriti Mandhana taking up the other spot.

Come Saturday, the onus would be on Verma to nail down the headstart she has on Bhatia, and the spotlight will be on Bhatia to level-up with that one impact knock when it really matters.