Former India captain Anjum Chopra believes Harmanpreet Kaur’s defining legacy as skipper will be the historic 2025 Girls’s ODI World Cup triumph, and the stronger, more assured workforce she leaves behind. As Harmanpreet steps down after nearly a decade in charge and Smriti Mandhana takes over throughout formats, Chopra has reflected on the captain’s development, the demands of leadership and why India’s T20 World Cup exits should not be reduced to a query of captaincy.
Harmanpreet Kaur led India in five Assessments, 51 ODIs and 155 T20Is. Her tenure brought major milestones throughout formats: India’s first senior-level ICC title, the 2025 ODI World Cup on residence soil; a runners-up end at the 2020 Girls’s T20 World Cup; and semi-final appearances in 2018 and 2023. She also led India to consecutive Asian Video games gold medals in 2023 and 2026, and the 2026 Girls’s T20 Asia Cup. In that match, she turned the first player, male or female, to appear in 150 T20Is as captain.
“The most important legacy Harmanpreet will all the time must her credit score as a pacesetter is winning the ODI World Cup in 2025,” Chopra instructed IANS. She pointed to the workforce’s collective contribution, together with Harmanpreet’s important 89 within the semi-final towards Australia and Jemimah Rodrigues’ 127, before India beat South Africa by 52 runs within the last. “It wasn’t simply Harman. With each player contributing, Harman was able to lift that crown, and India was able to win.”
For Chopra, the World Cup title tells solely part of the story. India, she stated, turned a more skilful, experienced and energised facet during Harmanpreet’s captaincy, whereas her aggression and confidence helped shape the dressing room. Chopra first encountered Harmanpreet at a coaching camp in 2008 and has adopted her journey from her first World Cup look in 2009 to the captaincy.
“I don’t think the individual Harmanpreet Kaur has modified, though issues round her have modified dramatically for the ladies’s game,” she stated. Chopra described a pacesetter who might problem a teammate after a lapse within the discipline, then be the first to offer praise after a superb stop, wicket or catch. That steadiness, she suggested, reflected a captain who remained true to herself whereas rising with the workforce.
India’s path to the 2025 title included painful near misses: the 2017 ODI World Cup last, the 2023 T20 World Cup semi-final towards Australia and early exits at the 2024 and 2026 T20 World Cups. Chopra cautioned towards treating those exits as proof that Harmanpreet’s leadership had failed. She argued that India wanted to examine its strategy and preparation, significantly after counting on similar batting templates in T20 cricket regardless of the rising demands of the format.
“A captain doesn’t resolve that type of cricket; individual gamers resolve that type by how they go out and play,” Chopra stated. She also noted India’s limited bowling reserves, even throughout the successful 2025 campaign. Her broader level was that leadership can guide a workforce, but gamers must execute the strategy on the field.
That problem, Chopra stated, can also be why captaincy demands sacrifice. A pacesetter could have to just accept a special batting place, put aside personal preferences or make troublesome decisions about choice and roles to serve the workforce’s needs. The accountability extends past match day: a captain must contemplate how you can help the entire group prepare and carry out.
“The pace of the chief is the pace of the workforce,” Chopra stated, describing the steadiness between setting route and moving at a pace the workforce can observe. She added that captaincy is “time-consuming and energy-draining”, a accountability whose weight is troublesome to understand until a player is making those decisions.
With Mandhana succeeding Harmanpreet, India’s leadership changes as a new cycle begins. Harmanpreet’s record will likely be measured not solely by titles, but by the boldness and expertise she helped construct into the facet. As Chopra put it, the workforce will maintain moving; the task for its subsequent chief is to carry that progress ahead.
I’m Yash Tailor, and I believe work ought to be driven by passion. Subsequently, after finishing my Engineering, I chose to work within the Cricket trade, my passion. My purpose is to achieve a stage where I really take pleasure in what I do and give my best to every process with vitality and objective.
Source: femalecricket.com
