The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided it’s time to move on from Harmanpreet Kaur. First trusted to lead India’s women’s cricket team in 2012, Harmanpreet has 145 caps to her name as captain in all three formats with an 87-51 record. Following an underwhelming 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup campaign and age catching up (35), BCCI thinks it’s apt to look for her replacement. Someone who can serve Indian Cricket like Harmanpreet did for over a decade.
Harmanpreet Kaur’s 3 likely replacements as India captain
Unlike the men’s cricket team, where Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav and Ruturaj Gaikwad have captained the side (across three formats) in the last two years, the women’s team has had just three captains since 2020. One of them is Harmanpreet, the second is now retired (Mithali Raj), and Smriti Mandhana is the third one.
When you haven’t given the chance to multiple players to lead the side, you can’t judge who’s the best among them. Even in the Women’s Premier League (WPL), Harmanpreet and Mandhana are the only Indians to lead two of the five franchises. This means there aren’t many captaincy candidates within the current team. Mandhana is the current vice-captain and therefore she’s the first one; the others are Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma.
Smriti Mandhana: Tried, tested & successful
Mandhana has already led India’s women’s cricket team 13 times. While all of these have come in T20Is, there isn’t exactly a reason why she can’t lead in the other two formats. Furthermore, she’s India’s best batter across formats. Making your best batter your captain is a troupe old as time in cricket. She also won the WPL 2024 with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women, and that certainly strengthens her case. Without a doubt, she’ll be the main candidate while looking at her credentials, but the others might have a case as well.
Jemimah Rodrigues: Age advantage
Jemimah is the youngest of them all. At 24, she has 137 India caps, and after Mandhana, she’s the best batter across batters. Her technique is flawless, and she succeeds in Tests and ODIs because of it. Her T20 game wasn’t up to the mark before this year, and now she’s one of the most aggressive batters in the team. She’s also the Delhi Capitals women’s vice-captain and could very well be named their skipper for the next season.
Jemimah can serve as captain for a decade. Indian great and former skipper Mithali Raj feels the same and backed her over Mandhana. “Smriti (vice-captain since 2016) is there, but I think someone like Jemimah—she’s 24, she’s young—will serve you more. And is someone who I feel on the field gets that energy. She speaks to everybody. I was very impressed by her in this tournament,” she said after India were knocked out of the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024.
Deepti Sharma: All-rounder with experience
Some might call Deepti the women’s team Ravindra Jadeja. She possesses the ability to win matches with ball or bat, and she’s among the top five all-rounders in T20Is and ODIs. She’s the most experienced player in the team after Harmanpreet, having made her debut in 2014. Similar to Mandhana and Jemimah, she’s undroppable. Deepti’s Alyssa Healy’s deputy at the UP Warriorz, and although she doesn’t have much experience leading the side, her game-reading skills are great, and she knows how to handle pressure in both facets of the game.
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