Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur reportedly did not 'see eye to eye' about captaincy

Smriti Mandhana has long been seen as the natural choice for India’s next leadership transition. But has the opportunity come too late? Following Harmanpreet Kaur’s resignation, Smriti was appointed captain of the Indian women’s cricket team on October 6. However, the change in leadership comes amid reports of growing differences between the two players, with tensions within the team making the transition a bit chaotic.

Smriti Mandhana finally gets the captaincy, but ignites a complicated relationship with ex-captain Harmanpreet Kaur

As Smriti adorned the captaincy title, reports started to surface regarding some tensions between two of India’s best cricketers. A source close to the team said in a report that Smriti and Harmanpreet are not seeing eye to eye and this has led to some serious unease in the dressing room of the players. As per reports, the source said, “They were not seeing eye to eye for a while now and that led to an obvious unease in the dressing room”.

The awkwardness has come along due to some understandable reasons. First, there has been a serious delay in handing over the captaincy to Smriti which has upsetted her for a while. The promotion has been discussed for some time but the change was not being acted upon. Even after India won the 2025 ODI World Cup, the cricket association stretched the captaincy hand-over for a long time. Second, as Harmanpreet decided on continuing to play for India for at least two to three years, the change came as a bad impression on her career. Also, she expected a captaincy at least in the ODI and Test formats. But the BCCI and selectors wanted a leadership transition. This made the captaincy change a potentially sensitive issue between the two senior players, who had previously worked well together. 

Following India’s early exit from the T20 World Cup in the UK earlier this year, former captain Mithali Raj had also questioned why Smriti had not been handed the leadership role sooner. Mithali said in a report, “I thought she would be given the captaincy of the ODI format two-three years back. She can still be the ODI and Test captain and the T20 captaincy could be given to someone younger like Shafali (Verma),"

This strained relationship between the former and current captains seems to be a thing in the women’s cricket team. Reports suggest that when Harmanpreet replaced Mithali as ODI captain after the 2022 World Cup, tensions between the two had already become evident, eventually contributing to divisions within the team. 

Now, at the end of the day, amidst the chaos, Smriti has some big shoes to fill and let the world see how she shapes her late-received empire strategically.

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