Harmanpreet Kaur Reveals Her Idol While Growing Up

Indian women team’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur is not only of the top-notch batters but also one of the hardest hitters of the ball in women’s cricket. Harmanpreet Kaur has built her reputation as a crasher and dasher, slamming an ODI career-best 171 off 115 deliveries in 2017. In a chat with Harsha Bhogle for Cricbuzz, the right-hander has revealed her idol.

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As one of the most destructive batters herself, her idol is none other than Virender Sehwag. Virender Sehwag was one of those, who was the hardest hitters of the ball and went after the bowlers from the get-go.

The Delhi batsman used to operate on a strike rate of an excess of 80 in Tests and ODIs. Sehwag has a record two triple-centuries in Test cricket and holds the record for the fastest triple-century.

Harmanpreet Kaur disclosed that Sehwag reverted to her text with a call within a couple of seconds when she texted him for the first time. The 31-year-old mentioned that Sehwag listened to all her queries carefully and patiently due to which the skipper’s respect increased manifold for him. Hence, for a cricketer like Sehwag to respond with a call was quite rare.

“For the first time, I had written him a text which read – Sir, I want to talk to you, if you have time please talk. You won’t believe, he called back within two seconds. I was surprised as I thought he might not read the message or check it after 10 days. He called back and it did not look like he was in a hurry to answer my queries.

“He gave me plenty of time, patiently listened to all my questions, and gave me advice. My respect for him increased after that, as earlier, we used to just dream about our favourite cricketers – to meet them and take a selfie with them. But to talk to him over the phone and that too him calling back, I think it’s very rare,” Kaur stated.

I have always followed him: Harmanpreet Kaur

The Punjab-born cricketer further conceded that she always used to follow Sehwag’s batting and used to feel nervous before India’s match. Kaur added that she used to have stiff competition and shared banter with her brother, who preferred Yuvraj Singh over Sehwag.

“I have always followed him. I was so fond of his batting that I used to be more nervous about his batting than him before every match. I and my brother used to compete. His favourite cricketer was Yuvraj Singh, Sehwag was my favourite,” she added.

“Whoever scored more runs, the other person was teased throughout the day. The cricketers might not even realise this but it was a different atmosphere at our place and my mother just spent her time trying to bring the fight to an end.”

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