By Rakesh Jha
New Delhi: Less than a year after she held the World Cup aloft in Navi Mumbai, Harmanpreet Kaur has decided her captaincy has run its course. On Tuesday the 37-year-old gave up the India captaincy in all three formats, with immediate effect. She is not retiring. She will carry on as a player, and she leaves the armband behind with India holding both the World Cup and the Asian Games title.
Few Indian captains get to leave like this, on their own terms and at a time of their choosing.
“Leading India has been one of the greatest honours and privileges of my life,” she wrote to the BCCI. “After careful consideration, I believe that this is the right time for me to hand over the responsibility of captaincy and allow the team to move forward under new leadership.” She was just as clear about what comes next: “My commitment to Indian cricket remains as strong as ever.”
BCCI president Mithun Manhas called the 2025 World Cup “the defining achievement of her captaincy”. Honorary secretary Devajit Saikia put his finger on what made it matter. She had, he said, “experienced the disappointment of falling short, but continued to believe in the team and its ability to achieve more. That is what made the World Cup victory in 2025 so special.”
An accidental beginning
Harmanpreet’s first day in charge was never meant to happen. At the 2012 Women’s T20 Asia Cup in Guangzhou, Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami were both ruled out of the final through injury, and the young batter from Moga was handed the side for a final against Pakistan. India won by 18 runs and took the first edition of the tournament.
Four years later the T20I captaincy was hers for good. In 2022, after Raj retired, she took the ODI and Test sides as well. By the time she stepped down she had led India in five Tests, 51 ODIs and 155 T20Is. This year she also became the most-capped player in women’s international cricket, the first to play 200 T20Is and the first to captain in 150 of them.
The batter who could take a game away
For all the trophies, many Indian fans will remember Harmanpreet first for one evening in Derby. India were 35 for two in a rain-shortened World Cup semi-final against Australia in July 2017 when she walked out. She left with 171 not out from 115 balls, 20 fours and seven sixes. Her second fifty took 26 balls, her third 17. Australia, the holders, were beaten and India were in a World Cup final.
That innings told you most of what you needed to know about her batting. She hits the ball unusually hard, particularly through the leg side, and once she is set she can turn a match in a handful of overs. In November 2018, in Guyana, she became the first Indian woman to score a T20I hundred, taking 103 off 51 balls against New Zealand with eight sixes. In the knockout games that decide tournaments she has repeatedly produced her best.
She was also a pioneer away from India. In 2016 she became the first Indian woman signed by an overseas T20 franchise, joining Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League. She received the Arjuna Award in 2017 and, in 2023, became the first Indian woman named one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year. Her off-spin is easy to overlook, but it earned her nine wickets against South Africa in only her second Test, at Mysore in 2014.
A captain who wore her heart on her sleeve
Harmanpreet never hid what she felt on the field, and her teams took on her character. They played with intent, and she trusted her own off-spin to break stubborn partnerships. In December 2023 she did exactly that at the Wankhede, removing Tahlia McGrath for 73 and Alyssa Healy for 32 as India went on to beat Australia by eight wickets. It was India’s first Test win over Australia, and it came days after they had beaten England by 347 runs in Navi Mumbai. A year earlier her side had won an ODI series in England for the first time since 1999.
The defeats, though, came at the worst moments. India lost the 2020 T20 World Cup final to Australia and the 2022 Commonwealth Games final by nine runs. In the 2023 T20 World Cup semi-final in Cape Town she was run out for 52 when her bat stuck in the pitch, and India lost by five runs.
That history is why 2025 counts for so much. She had been in the side that lost the 2017 final at Lord’s. Eight years later, at home, she made 89 in the semi-final against Australia, adding 167 with Jemimah Rodrigues as India chased a record 339, and then led them past South Africa by 52 runs in the final. Her last act as captain was Asian Games gold in Nagoya, sealed with a 147-run win over Sri Lanka.
Five ODI innings that defined her
171 not out v Australia, Derby, 2017. Rain had cut the World Cup semi-final to 42 overs, and India were 35 for two when she walked out. What followed was 171 not out off 115 balls, with 20 fours and seven sixes. Her second fifty took 26 balls, her third 17. Australia, the defending champions, were knocked out.
143 not out v England, Canterbury, 2022. With India’s first ODI series win in England for 23 years within reach, the captain made certain of it. She hit 143 not out off 111 balls, with 18 fours and four sixes, and added 113 with Harleen Deol. India reached 333 for five and won by 88 runs.
109 v West Indies, Hamilton, 2022. India were 62 for two at the end of the powerplay, with Mithali Raj gone early, and the World Cup game at Seddon Park needed building. Harmanpreet and Smriti Mandhana built it, adding 184 for the fourth wicket as both reached hundreds. West Indies, set 318, were bowled out for 162.
103 not out v South Africa, Bengaluru, 2024. Mandhana’s 136 took the headlines, but the captain’s unbeaten 103 off 88 balls, with nine fours and three sixes, pushed India to 325 for three. It proved just enough. Laura Wolvaardt and Marizanne Kapp both made hundreds in reply, and India held on by four runs to clinch the series.
89 v Australia, Navi Mumbai, 2025. Chasing a record 339 in a home World Cup semi-final, India needed someone to stay with Jemimah Rodrigues. The captain did, making 89 in a stand of 167 that turned the chase India’s way. India got home and beat South Africa by 52 runs in the final.
Five T20I innings that stand out
103 v New Zealand, Providence, 2018. It was the opening game of the World T20, and India were 40 for three after the powerplay. Harmanpreet answered with 103 off 51 balls, including eight sixes, at a strike rate a fraction under 202. India piled up 194 for four and won. No Indian woman had scored a T20I hundred before.
65 v Australia, Birmingham, 2022. A first Commonwealth Games gold was in sight while the captain was at the crease. Chasing Australia’s 161 for eight at Edgbaston, she made 65 off 43 balls. India then lost eight wickets for 32 and were bowled out for 152, nine runs short. They went home with silver.
52 v Australia, Cape Town, 2023. Chasing 173 in the T20 World Cup semi-final at Newlands, Harmanpreet had India on course with 52 off 34 balls. Then, coming back for a routine second run in the 15th over, her bat stuck in the pitch and Alyssa Healy broke the stumps. India lost by five runs.
52 not out v Sri Lanka, Dubai, 2024. Against Sri Lanka at the T20 World Cup, the captain took charge of the finish. Her unbeaten 52 came off 27 balls, with eight fours and a six, the fastest T20I fifty of her career. India reached 172 for three, and she became only the third woman to pass 3,500 T20I runs.
46 v Australia, Adelaide, 2016. India were chasing 141 at the Adelaide Oval on Republic Day and had slipped to 74 for three in the 12th over, with Mithali Raj and Smriti Mandhana gone. Harmanpreet hit five fours and a six in 46 off 31 balls, and India got home with eight balls to spare.
Harmanpreet, by her own account, intends to help the team through the transition, “supporting the team, the new leadership and the younger players with the same passion and dedication”.
Following her decision to step down, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officially announced Smriti Mandhana as the new captain of the Indian Women’s Cricket Team, entrusting the senior batter and two-time WPL-winning skipper with the responsibility of taking Indian women’s cricket forward into its next chapter.
