Harmanpreet Kaurਹਰਮਨਪ੍ਰੀਤ ਕੌਰ

Early life

Harmanpreet Kaur was born on 8 March 1989 in Moga, a town in Punjab’s Malwa region. Her father, Harmandar Singh Bhullar, had been a volleyball and basketball player who once aspired to play cricket himself, and he became his daughter’s first coach, taking her to the nets and drilling her basics. Cricket in small-town Punjab offered few paths for girls in the 1990s, but her talent was obvious early — she played with boys’ teams and dominated local tournaments as a teenager.

She came up through Punjab’s age-group sides and the Railways team, her powerful hitting and handy off-spin marking her out. In 2009, at twenty, she made her international debut for India, and her rise through the national side was steady rather than sudden — a middle-order batter who could clear the ropes and bowl useful overs.

The 171 not out

Everything changed on 20 July 2017 at Derby, in the semifinal of the ICC Women’s World Cup. India, chasing a place in the final against defending champions Australia, were wobbling after rain reduced the match to forty-two overs a side. Harmanpreet walked in and produced one of the greatest innings ever played in women’s cricket: 171 not out off 115 balls, with twenty fours and seven sixes.

She reached her fifty off sixty-four balls, then unleashed — the last hundred runs came at a ferocious pace as she dismantled the Australian attack. India posted 281 for four and won by thirty-six runs to reach the final. The innings was the highest individual score by an Indian in a Women’s World Cup, and it was watched by millions back home, many of whom were seeing women’s cricket properly for the first time.

Three days later, at a packed Lord’s, India came within nine runs of winning the final against England. The defeat stung, but the tournament had transformed the team’s standing: the BCCI announced long-pending pay rises, matches began drawing television audiences in the crores, and Harmanpreet — the small-town girl who had destroyed Australia — was suddenly one of the most recognisable sportswomen in the country.

Captaincy

Harmanpreet had already been leading India in T20 internationals since 2016, and after Mithali Raj’s retirement she took over the ODI captaincy as well, becoming the all-format captain of the national women’s team. Under her leadership India won a historic ODI series in England in 2022 — their first there in twenty-three years — and the gold medal at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, where women’s cricket made its Asian Games debut.

She was also a trailblazer for Indian women in franchise cricket: in 2016 she became the first Indian to sign for Australia’s Women’s Big Bash League, turning out for the Sydney Thunder, and she has since been among the most sought-after overseas players in leagues around the world.

Legacy

Harmanpreet Kaur’s 171 not out did for Indian women’s cricket what Kapil Dev’s 175 did for the men’s game in 1983 — it gave a generation a moment to believe in. She has carried the hopes of a team through a period of rapid professionalisation, and her aggressive, fearless batting has become the template for the young players coming up behind her. From the fields of Moga to the captaincy of India, her journey mirrors the rise of women’s cricket in the country itself.