Harmanpreet Kaur has joined a very small list of Indian captains who have taken their team to a World Cup title, joining Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni as the only Indian captains to win ODI World Cups. Harmanpreet led the women’s team to a historic first World Cup title, beating South Africa in Navi Mumbai earlier this month, and signalling a watershed moment for Indian women’s cricket.
While Harman follows up in the footsteps of a long list of women’s captains who laid the building blocks for this international success, there is also no question that there would have been the hope to follow what Dhoni achieved with the 2011 team at their own home World Cup success.
At an event at the Velammal Nexus School in Chennai, Harmanpreet was ask who her favourite cricketer was, Dhoni or his successor Virat Kohli. Harman accepted ‘It is a tough question,’ but then emphatically answered ‘Dhoni’, and earned a big cheer from the Dhoni-frenzied crowd in his adopted home.
Harmanpreet has certainly established a legacy to match that of Dhoni, being not only a trailblazer with her captaincy but also with her clutch knock in the semifinal chase against Australia. This was her fifth World Cup, 16 years after her first, a long journey that finally earned her silverware to match the status of her career.
Dhoni and Harmanpreet also share another similarity: while Dhoni had wrapped up the 2011 World Cup with his iconic six, Harmanpreet was also involved in the winning moment in Navi Mumbai, as she took the catch that dismissed Nadine de Klerk to bowl out the Proteas.
Having helped put the crowning moment on India’s long road to women’s World Cup success, Harmanpreet has also led the way for women’s cricket to be held at the same stature as the men’s variant of the sport. Speaking at the event, Harmanpreet reflected on how it felt to have the success and the support behind their achievements.
“It is good to see that now people only talk about cricket without comparing (men’s and women’s cricket),” Harmanpreet had said. “Now everyone enjoys and the viewership is high, stadiums are full, it is a proud moment.”
