Harmanpreet Kaur. (Image: Facebook)

All good things must come to an end. And Harmanpreet Kaur has chosen to step down from the India captaincy across all three formats with perhaps the best possible view of the finish line. The 37-year-old, only the third Indian captain after Kapil Dev and M.S. Dhoni to win the ICC ODI World Cup, remained the face and force of the transformation of women’s cricket.

There is something fitting about the timing. Harmanpreet's final three assignments as captain brought three major victories: an Asia Cup title, a historic Test win at Lord’s and an Asian Games gold. She has also helped India qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Not a bad day to hand over the baton!

When she took over the T20I captaincy in 2016, Indian women’s cricket was still fighting for space and respect. By the time she stepped down, the landscape had changed dramatically. She took charge of the ODI and Test sides full-time after Mithali Raj’s retirement in 2022 and went on to captain India in five Tests, 51 ODIs and 155 T20Is. She became the first captain — male or female — to lead in more than 150 T20Is.

But Harmanpreet’s legacy is not just about numbers and achievements. Her clean hitting, fierce slog sweeps and ability to clear the boundary with seemingly little effort made her one of the most feared batters of her generation. Her 171 not out against Australia in the 2017 World Cup remains etched in memory, but the bigger contribution was what those innings represented: a belief that Indian women could take on the best without blinking.

There were heartbreaks, criticism and near misses along the way. The T20 World Cup final defeat in 2020 and repeated semi-final exits all added to the pressure and yet she kept coming back.

There were times when her captaincy came under intense scrutiny, particularly after India failed to reach the T20 World Cup semi-finals in England earlier this year. Questions over succession had already been gathering, with Smriti Mandhana increasingly seen as the obvious choice. Harmanpreet’s experience will be invaluable to the next captain and the next generation.

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