Harmanpreet Kaur relinquished captaincy across all formats days after leading India to Asian Games gold medal.
Harmanpreet Kaur officially stepped down as the captain of the Indian women's cricket team across all international formats on Tuesday (October 6).
Her resignation came only a day after the high-level Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) review meeting held in Guwahati.
During the review meeting—chaired by BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia and attended by vice-captain Smriti Mandhana and head coach Amol Muzumdar—the board offered Harmanpreet a split-leadership compromise, according to a report in Cricbuzz.
The board reportedly proposed that she retain her captaincy in ODIs and Tests while giving up the leadership role only for T20Is.
However, the 37-year-old veteran explicitly rejected the split-captaincy model. Believing it was time to step aside entirely, she chose to relinquish command over all three formats to give the team and her eventual successor clear space to build for the future.
While announcing her decision to quit captaincy, Harmanpreet confirmed she is not retiring from international cricket and plans to continue playing purely as a batter.
Following recent review meetings by the BCCI, the report also indicates a strategic shift to build the squad under the future leadership of Smriti Mandhana, who has been Harmanpreet’s long-time deputy.
This leadership transition is structured around major upcoming global tournaments -- 2028 Women’s T20 World Cup and the Los Angeles Olympics in the same year.
The national women's selection committee, chaired by former Indian bowler Amita Sharma, is expected to officially name Mandhana as the new captain within the next 24 hours. The committee is meeting to pick the squad for the upcoming six-match white-ball series against Zimbabwe, consisting of three T20Is and three ODIs.
This historic series marks the first-time bilateral visit of the Zimbabwe Women's cricket team to India.