Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana hadn't been seeing eye to eye over captaincy: Report

It was a no-brainer that Smriti Mandhana would receive the honour of captaining the Indian women's cricket team after Harmanpreet Kaur's resignation from the position. But is it a case of the elevation coming too late in the day for the 30-year-old left-hander, who is the country's best batter right now by quite a distance?

The call from Harmanpreet, who led India for the first time in 2016, to step down from captaincy across formats was taken following a review meeting with the BCCI. The 37-year-old from Moga ended her path-breaking leadership tenure on a high, having just captained India to a second consecutive Asian Games gold in Japan.

Mandhana was the obvious choice to take over the mantle from Harmanpreet. Having made her debut way back in 2013, the elegant opener has risen to be among the leading batters in the game, tallying more than 10,000 runs across formats.

Mandhana was always head and



shoulders above the rest when it came to skill and now she has further elevated her craft by adding power to her all-round game. It was no secret that she had run out of patience with the selectors, who chose to maintain the status quo on captaincy even after India ended their ICC trophy drought with the ODI World Cup win at home last year.

In a recent interview, she expressed her readiness to lead India and after the Asian Games gold, she went on to say that India should be aiming to win bigger tournaments. In between the 50-over high, India had made premature exits from back-to-back T20 World Cups, raising questions over the leadership starting with the shortest format.

But the selectors did not bell the cat. But at the review meeting in Guwahati, which was chaired by BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia, it was made clear to Harmanpreet that a change of guard was inevitable. She eventually decided to take matters in her own hands.