Birthday special: Harmanpreet Kaur – India’s Wonder Woman
A few women cricketers have managed to catch the imagination of the Indian cricket fraternity and one of them is Harmanpreet Kaur. Harmanpreet represents the new-age India women’s cricketer who does not shy away from taking on the world. Unlike her predecessors, Harmanpreet belongs to a generation that saw women cricketers finally endorsing brands and earning central contracts.
Career highlights
Born in Moga, Harmanpreet idolizes India legend Virender Sehwag and follows his mantra of ‘see ball, hit ball’ with utmost sincerity. She made her debut in 2009 but did not really make a big impression early on. It was only from 2013 that she started turning heads with her performances in the game. Her century against England at the 2013 World Cup made her one of the most sought after players in Indian women cricket and she has lived up to the promise so far.
In the same year, she was named ODI captain for the first time in the absence of Mithali Raj when Bangladesh toured India. In the series, Harmanpreet scored her second ODI century and finished the series with 195 runs at an average of 97.50. Since 2013, her career graph has only gone in an upward direction.
In 2016, she starred with the bat to help India win the T20I series in Australia for the first time before creating history by becoming the first India cricketer – male or female – to sign a Big Bash League contract with Sydney Thunder in Australia. A few months later, she became the first Indian to sign with Surrey Stars in ECB’s Kia Super League.
Harmanpreet’s popularity then soared further when she played the monumental knock of 171 not out off just 115 balls against Australia at the 2017 World Cup semifinal. She scored a fighting fifty in the final too but failed to take the team over the line against England. In the following year, she was named India’s captain for the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and she totally justified the decision.
In the opening match of the tournament against New Zealand, Harmanpreet became the first woman for India to score a century in T20Is as she slammed 103 off just 51 balls. She finished the tournament as the team’s leading run-scorer as India made it to the semifinals, their first knockout appearance in the T20 World Cup.
Last year, she led India to the final of the T20 World Cup but the team once again failed in the title-decider and lost to Australia. As India’s women team eye their first-ever global title, all eyes are on Harmanpreet. She knows what it takes to deliver in crunch games and thus it is not surprising at all that the cricketing fraternity has pinned its hopes on Harmanpreet. Fortune favours the brave and if the saying is right then it would not be wrong to say that Harmanpreet is destined for greater things in the days to come.
