All-rounder cricketer, Arjuna award winner, and captain of the India women’s national cricket team in all formats, Harmanpreet Kaur has transformed the sport in India.
By Nichola Marie

“One day, this was a dream. Now we are living that dream. So happy to see those changes,” vouched Harmanpreet Kaur Bhullar, speaking about the current trend of leading brands signing on female cricketers. She underlines, “Financial backing gives the freedom to a player, otherwise you keep thinking about unnecessary things.”

For The Love Of The Game
Kaur’s journey started with gully cricket as a youngster in her hometown Moga, Punjab. Inheriting her passion for the game from her father, her training began when coach Kamaldish Singh Sodhi noticed the otherwise-timid girl’s capacity to whack the ball out of the park, and decided to build a girls’ team from scratch.
Beginning as a medium pace all-rounder, Kaur’s consistent performances ensured her a place in India’s 2009 World T20 squad. An aspiring lead bowler, the presence of existing bowling stalwarts saw her strive to develop her batting skills instead. Becoming the batter of choice in times of crisis, she also developed into an off-spinner.

Learning & Leading
Learning has been a constant, as Kaur has imbibed the values of patience and even remodelled her game, striking a balance between caution and aggression. She became the first Indian cricketer ever to be roped in by a foreign T20 league. Signed with inaugural champions Sydney Thunder, she won the franchise’s Player of the Tournament award for her all-round show in the debut season. She also became the first Indian to sign up with Surrey Stars for the second edition of ECB’s Women’s Cricket League.
Handed the captaincy in April 2013, Kaur became the first woman for India to score a century in a Women’s Twenty20 International match. She is also the only Indian women cricketer with more than 3,000 runs in T20Is. In October 2019, she became the first cricketer for India to play in 100 international Twenty20 matches.
It’s no wonder that ‘TIME’ declares that Kaur’s “fire and flair have been instrumental in transforming women’s cricket from fringe curiosity to one of the world’s most valuable sporting assets…”