Harmanpreet Kaur steps down as India captain

Harmanpreet Kaur has announced she is stepping down as captain of India’s women’s cricket team across all formats, saying she will remain with the side as a player. The decision was announced on October 6 in a statement posted to Instagram, where she described the move as the end of her captaincy but not her involvement in Indian cricket. Kaur said she had given the team her full commitment and believed it was time to turn the page. She wrote that she was ready to play for the love of the game again and expressed confidence in the team’s talent, character and future. Her statement did not name a successor or provide a timetable for appointing one. The announcement ends Kaur’s leadership of India in the three formats of international cricket. She became the team’s full-time T20I captain in 2016. She took charge of the ODI side in 2022 and became captain across all three formats in 2023, according to one report. Another account says she first held the role temporarily in 2012, when India won the Women’s T20I Asia Cup, before taking over full time in 2016. One report said the announcement followed a Board of Control for Cricket in India review meeting in Guwahati.