Former India captain Mithali Raj highlighted the importance of members of the leadership group stepping up and supporting Harmanpreet Kaur in leading the team’s comeback after losing three games on the bounce in the group stage.
After winning two matches, India lost three consecutive games to South Africa, Australia and England. These defeats derailed India’s campaign and made the match against New Zealand in Indore a virtual quarter-final. India won that game and went on to lift the trophy.
Speaking exclusively to RevSportz, Mithali spoke about Harmanpreet’s leadership and the importance of other members of the squad in India’s successful campaign.
“I think it’s important in a tournament like this — as a captain, there are a lot of expectations from you,” she said. “In terms of commitments, you are required everywhere, and sometimes you don’t get the time to properly engage with your players. That’s when I think, if you have a leadership group — your deputy, the seniors in the side, even someone like Jemimah, who’s been in the squad for a long time — they can get involved and take on some of that responsibility for the captain. It reduces the load and pressure.
I think that’s what we saw, especially after losing three games on the trot. It’s not just the captain’s responsibility to make the comeback — it requires the entire leadership group to step up and perform, as they did against New Zealand and Australia in the semi-final. Those two games showed everyone getting involved on the field.”
Along with the team, Mithali also celebrated the trophy win, with videos of the celebrations going viral. Not just Mithali, but other pioneers of the game — Jhulan Goswami and Anjum Chopra — also joined the team in celebrating the hard-fought victory.
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