Calls for Harmanpreet Kaur's removal as India captain grew louder after the Women in Blue failed to defend 331 runs in an ongoing ICC Women's World Cup 2025 match against Australia in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. Having won two and lost one before the match in Australia, India's defeat on Sunday jeopardized their plans in the race for the top four after the league stage. The top four teams qualify for the semi-finals.
After openers Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal reached the podium with a 155-run stand, the Indian team found themselves comfortably at 294/5 in the 43rd over. However, they lost their last six wickets for 36 runs. In bowling, players like Amanjot Kaur and Kranti Gaud, although taking wickets, lacked sharpness, allowing the Australian batters to capitalize.
The Indian captain has not been in the best of form lately and has not achieved scores above fifty in the ongoing tournament. To add more to that, her five-bowler loyalty also came under scrutiny as Harmanpreet herself had to roll her hands for the sixth bowler option. Soon after the loss, India's approach to the match did not go down well with the fans as they demanded Harmanpreet's dismissal.
“When Harmanpreet Kaur is sacked by BCCI, who has captained team India for over a decade, is given unlimited power and equal pay as male cricketers, but has not won anything for India in ICC tournaments? All she does is shout at her juniors and show unnecessary attitude towards her opponents and coaches!!” wrote one user.
Harmanpreet Kaur defends bowlers despite losing
Despite failing to defend 331 runs, Harmanpreet defended her bowlers and came down heavily on the batters. “The way we started, we could have added another 30 to 40 runs. We missed runs in the last six overs and that cost us a lot of money.” It was a good batting wicket but not batting well in the last six overs cost us,” Harmanpreet said after the match.
“Openers were excellent, thanks to them we scored 300 runs. The last five overs cost us a lot. In the last three matches we were not able to bat in the middle overs. Our lower order took the responsibility,” she added.
After being given the ODI captaincy in 2013, this was the first time Harmanpreet had led in a 50-over World Cup. She led India in four T20 World Cups (2018, 2020, 2023 and 2024) with just one second-place finish.
