Harleen Deol wasn’t a happy chappy when the UP Warriorz head coach Abhishek Nayar made the call to retire her out midway through the team’s batting innings against the Delhi Capitals in the Women’s Premier League (WPL). And her displeasure was justified, considering she was batting on 47 off 36 balls and there were just three overs remaining. However, rather than sulking, the right-hander did the best thing possible – guided the team’s chase in the very next game against the two-time champions Mumbai Indians.
In the WPL 2026 fixture against Harmanpreet Kaur’s side, Harleen smashed an unbeaten 64 off 39 balls with 12 boundaries to help UP Warriorz chase down the target of 162 with 11 balls to spare and seven wickets in hand. Whenever the 27-year-old was smashing a boundary against MI, the camera panned quickly toNayar.
However, right after UP Warriorz notched up its first win of the WPL 2026 season, Nayar defended the call to retire Harleen in the previous game against Delhi, saying it wasn’t a “spontaneous one,” and that Harleen took it in the right spirit.
“It wasn’t like a very spontaneous decision. The conversation started around the 12th over, when we first sent a message to Meg Lanning while they were batting together. I think post the time-out in the 14th over, Meg decided to have a word with Harleen as well. At that point of time, we had already communicated to Harleen that if we don’t get going in the 16th or 17th over, we will look for a change,” Nayar told reporters in the post-match press conference.
“I know from the outside it feels like, ‘oh damn, what happened?’ but when we reached the 17th over, we just felt we have the power, we wanted to make sure we gave them the opportunity in the game. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. In hindsight, the whole team felt like that was the right decision,” he added.
‘Harleen is a team player’
Further delving into the situation, the UP Warriorz coach said Harleen is a team player, and she understood why such a call was taken, as the thinking was just to further increase the batting tempo.
“She is a team player, she always thinks team first, Harleen second. So the conversations post that incident were more about how we can make a difference today. But it wasn’t a very tough conversation, so it was more about making sure she’s okay, and the stigma around [retired out],” he said.
“When people talk about it, and say, ‘oh, this has happened’ without knowing what’s happening. I think not only me, but a couple of the coaches and owners had conversations, but she was okay. I remember just after walking in, the first thing she said, ‘Sir, we can win this game’. It becomes very easy when you have a player who doesn’t think ‘me’ and thinks team,” he added.
Despite the win against MI, UP Warriorz remain at the bottom of the points table and they will next square off against the same opponent on Saturday, January 17.
