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Smriti Mandhana’s wait for the India captaincy finally ended on October 6. After Harmanpreet Kaur stepped down as captain across all three formats on October 6, Smriti Mandhana has taken the charge of the India Women’s National Cricket Team across the formats.
However, this change should have happened much earlier, as opined by many. Well, Harmanpreet’s decision to step down as India's captain came after a review meeting with the BCCI. The 37-year-old had been India’s captain since 2016 and ended her stint after leading the team to their second straight Asian Games gold medal.
Smriti Mandhana finally gets India captaincy after selectors delay leadership change
Smriti Mandhana was always expected to get the captaincy of the India Women’s National Cricket Team after Harmanpreet Kaur. With more than 10,000 runs across formats, she is already one of the most successful batters going around in women’s cricket.
Over the years, she has added more power to her game, and her excellent efforts have made her an even more complete batter and strengthened her case for the captaincy. The interesting part is that the 30-year-old batter’s promotion could have come earlier.
Selectors finally lose patience as Harmanpreet Kaur’s captaincy era comes to an end
There had been reportedly growing frustration over the fact that the Indian selectors continued with Harmanpreet Kaur even after India finally ended their long wait for an ICC trophy by winning the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup at home last year.
Even Mandhana had been openly saying that he was ready to take the responsibility several times. At the same time, India’s disappointing T20 World Cup campaigns had started raising questions about Kaur’s leadership.
The team had suffered early exits from the back-to-back T20 World Cups, which increased the pressure around the captaincy, especially in the shortest format. Still, the Indian selectors did not make the change immediately.
The situation finally moved forward during the review meeting in Guwahati, chaired by BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia. Harmanpreet was clearly told that the change in the captaincy is unavoidable, and she eventually decided to sign off.
Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana not on same page
The captaincy issue had also reportedly created tension between Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana. The two had shared a good relationship earlier, but things had become uncomfortable for some time. They were not always on the same page, which impacted the dressing room.
An Indian team source was quoted as saying by PTI, "They were not seeing eye to eye for a while now, and that led to an obvious unease in the dressing room.”
Well, the India Women’s National Cricket Team has faced leadership problems before as well. When Harmanpreet took over the ODI captaincy from Mithali Raj after the 2022 World Cup, the relationship between the two experienced players had already become sour.
The situation eventually led to divisions within the team. Now, the history is repeating itself. Harmanpreet is not retiring and is expected to continue playing for another two or three years. This means she and Mandhana will now have to make things work for the sake of the team.
