Harmanpreet Kaur steps down after transforming India's women into world champions

Harmanpreet Kaur has stepped down as captain of India's women's cricket team across all formats, bringing to an end a decade-long reign during which she converted a side long regarded as talented but fragile into the first Indian women's team to win the World Cup.

The 37-year-old announced her decision on October 6, 2026, in a post on Instagram, where she described the move as far from straightforward. She explained that leadership had repeatedly forced her into difficult choices, some of which were not widely understood at the time and occasionally exacted a personal toll. Crucially, Kaur made clear that she is not retiring from international cricket and intends to keep playing for her country.

Her decision followed a meeting held a day earlier to discuss the direction of Indian women's cricket. The discussion brought together Kaur, her long-time deputy Smriti Mandhana, head coach Amol Muzumdar and Devajit Saikia, the honorary secretary of the Indian cricket board. Mandhana, who had served as vice-captain for four years, was named as her successor, ensuring a degree of continuity in a setup that has grown accustomed to contending at the business end of global tournaments.

Kaur, India's most capped women's cricketer, departs the role with an imposing record. She oversaw five Test matches, 51 one-day internationals and 155 Twenty20 internationals, registering win percentages of 80, 58.82 and 59.35 respectively. Her final assignment in charge was the recently concluded Asian Games in Japan, where India claimed gold, adding to an Asia Cup title secured in the United Arab Emirates only nine days earlier.

Those medals and trophies, however, capture only part of her legacy. The fuller story lies in the way India learned to play a different, more fearless brand of cricket under her guidance, a shift that reshaped expectations around a team that had spent decades in the shadow of Australia and England.

Kaur first took charge of the T20 side on a full-time basis in 2016, inheriting a team reeling from a group-stage exit at a home World Cup. Her appointment came on the back of a match-winning innings that delivered India their first T20I series victory over Australia in any format, a breakthrough that prompted the Big Bash League, Australia's franchise T20 competition, to sign her as its first Indian cricketer.

The cricketing world did not have to wait long for the batter to make her intentions plain. At the 2017 ODI World Cup in England, Kaur dismantled a formidable Australian attack with an unbeaten 171 in the semifinal, dragging India into the final and overturning entrenched assumptions about how much power and aggression an Indian woman could bring to the crease.

That tournament, which ended with India as runners-up, is now widely viewed as a turning point for the women's game in the country. Speaking afterwards, Kaur recounted how friends of her father had once discouraged her from attempting big shots, questioning why she would try to clear the rope when, in their view, girls lacked the strength to do so. After the 2017 World Cup, she noted, those same sceptics began to believe that she and her teammates were perfectly capable of it.

Her influence was not lost on her contemporaries. Alyssa Healy, the former Australia captain, observed in 2023 that Kaur's work in leading both the Indian side and a new generation of Indian women into the modern game had been remarkable to watch. Healy's comments came before India faced Australia in a Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, a fixture that underlined how far the team had come.

At her first T20 World Cup as full-time captain in 2018, Kaur guided India to their first semifinal in eight years while also striking the country's maiden T20I century, a 51-ball 103 against New Zealand. That performance set in motion a broader evolution in a format India had historically found difficult, having long been better suited to the longer ODI game. Steering a younger squad towards a more aggressive, contemporary approach to T20 cricket was therefore both vital and timely.

Progress continued. In 2020, India reached their first T20 World Cup final, propelled largely by the teenage batting all-rounder Shafali Verma and the leg-spinner Poonam Yadav. Australia, however, proved too strong in front of a record crowd of more than 86,000 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, an occasion that demonstrated both the growth of the women's game and the gap India still had to close.

More near-misses followed, testing the patience of players and fans alike. India fell short in the final at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, where they took silver, and then suffered another agonising semifinal defeat at the 2023 T20 World Cup, prolonging the question of when, or whether, the team would finally land a global title.

That question was emphatically answered in November 2025. India overcame the then-defending champions Australia in a stunning come-from-behind semifinal, before defeating a determined South Africa in the final to be crowned world champions for the first time, sealing the triumph in front of jubilant home supporters. The victory erased years of what-ifs and validated the aggressive philosophy Kaur had instilled.

The breakout run that first signalled India's arrival had come at the 2017 ODI World Cup, a campaign that ended in heartbreak but announced the team as a genuine force. Kaur had been appointed T20 captain in 2016 and was earmarked to take charge across all formats, a succession plan built around her combative approach and tactical clarity.

Her tenure also coincided with a structural shift in the wider game, as franchise leagues, broadcast interest and record attendances began to draw greater attention to women's cricket. India's rise under Kaur fed directly into that momentum, with the team becoming a consistent draw at home and a regular fixture in the latter stages of major tournaments.

Kaur's leadership was not without criticism, and she acknowledged as much in her farewell message, noting that her decisions were sometimes difficult to comprehend from the outside. Yet the results, culminating in a World Cup on home soil, offer a persuasive verdict on the direction she chose.

For India, the immediate task now falls to Mandhana, who inherits a squad with genuine depth and the confidence that comes from having won the sport's biggest prize. For Kaur, a new chapter begins as a senior player rather than the figure setting the course, though her imprint on the team's identity is likely to endure for years.