"He's the reason I could dream of becoming the Indian captain"

India Women's team captain Harmanpreet Kaur recently shared her cricketing journey to the top. The 34-year-old revealed how her father helped her succeed as a cricketer despite coming from a remote village like Moga.

Sharing a picture with her father in an Instagram post, Harmanpreet Kaur wrote:

"When I was young, I used to get laughed at for saying that I wanted to play cricket for India. Nobody believed me except my father. I think he was the only person who would encourage my brother and me to go out there and break windows."

She continued:

"He loved playing sports, having been a former volleyball and basketball player himself. He always told me to keep playing despite it being such a stereotype where I come from. He encouraged me to go shoulder-to-shoulder with the boys of the village, and I never shied away.

"He’s the reason I took up cricket, and he’s the reason I could dream of becoming the Indian captain."

For the uninitiated, Kaur’s father was once an aspiring cricketer. He was her first coach when she took up the sport.

The emotional post comes weeks after Kaur lifted the Women’s Premier League (WPL) trophy with Mumbai Indians (MI) by defeating Delhi Capitals (DC) in the final. The right-handed batter also looked brilliant with the bat, scoring 281 runs in 10 games at a strike rate of 135.10.

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Harmanpreet Kaur is the most successful Indian captain in T20Is

Harmanpreet Kaur is the most successful Indian captain in T20Is. She has won 54 games in 96 matches. MS Dhoni is placed second with 41 wins in 72 games. She has also led India in 11 ODIs, winning 10 games, including a recent 3-0 clean sweep against England Women away from home.

Kaur guided India Women to the finals of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2020 and the ODI World Cup in 2022.

The Punjab batter is the first woman to score a century in T20Is. Kaur is also the first cricketer from India, male or female, to represent India in 100 T20Is. She also holds the second-highest score (171* vs Australia Women) by an Indian batter in Women's ODIs, only behind Deepti Sharma (188 vs Ireland Women).

In July 2017, she became only the second Indian cricketer to feature in the top 10 list of ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings after Mithali Raj.

Besides international cricket and the WPL, Harmanpreet Kaur was also the first Indian cricketer to be signed by the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) in 2016-17. She also played for Manchester Originals in the inaugural edition of The Hundred.

Harmanpreet Kaur has, so far, represented India in 151 T20Is, 124 ODIs, and three Tests, scoring 3058, 3322, and 38 runs, respectively. The all-rounder has scalped 32, 31, and nine wickets in the three formats, respectively.