Her grit, Her game, Her glory: From Harmanpreet Kaur to Shafali Verma, meet India’s 16 pioneering World Cup winners

One of India’s greatest, Harmanpreet Kaur will forever be remembered for that 171* against Australia in the 2017 World Cup semifinal. It wasn’t a one-off though, the girl from Moga has always saved her best for the big occasion. Her first ODI century came in the 2013 edition against England; she even scored a T20I century at the 2018 World Cup, the first Indian woman to achieve that feat. Father Harmandar Bhullar wanted one of his kids to take up sport, and when Harmanpreet was born, he bought a T-shirt with ‘good batsman’ printed on it, which would prove prophetic. Harmanpreet would accompany her father to the stadium opposite their home to play cricket with the local boys. Coach Kamaldeesh Singh Sodhi put her in an academy in Tarapur. Brother Gurjinder Singh would take her to play local matches and Harmanpreet would dominate playing against boys. Memorably, after she hit a six over extra cover in WBBL 2016, Adam Gilchrist tweeted: ‘Seriously impressed with Harmanpreet. Classy, skillful.’ It’s something she cherishes.

Did you know: Harmanpreet Kaur has scored the most runs in the history of Women’s ODI World Cup knockout matches.

Little sister, Big star: Smriti Mandhana

Age: 29
Role: Opening batter
Sangli, Maharashtra

Born into a cricket-loving family in Sangli, Smriti Mandhana’s interest in the game developed after watching brother Shravan represent Maharashtra at the Under-16 level. The left-hander made her state debut at the age of nine and first played for India as a 16-year-old against Bangladesh in April 2013. After tasting early success in Test cricket, where she was part of the side that beat England at Wormsley in 2014, Mandhana’s rise as a reliable white-ball opening batter began in early 2016 when she made her maiden ODI hundred against Australia at Hobart. Over the course of the next decade, Mandhana has scaled several peaks, including being ranked the No.1 batter in ODIs. She was appointed India’s ODI vice-captain in July 2022, and the added responsibility has only bettered her as a player.

Did you know: Smriti Mandhana is just one short (14) of Meg Lanning’s record for most women’s ODI centuries.

A simply sensational 💯 from Smriti Mandhana 🤩

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— ICC (@ICC) October 23, 2025

Keeping the faith: Jemimah Rodrigues

Age: 25
Role: Batter
Mumbai, Maharashtra

Growing up with an interest in playing multiple sports in the bylanes of Bandra, Jemimah Rodrigues first came into the spotlight when she was adjudged the Best Woman Cricketer in the Jr. Domestic category at the 2017-18 BCCI awards. Rodrigues made her India debut in ODIs at the age of 17 against Australia in Vadodara. Despite being shunted up and down the batting order, the 25-year-old has shown an ability to adapt to any given number – from essaying the role of an opener to that of a lower-middle-order batter. One of Rodrigues’ great strengths is being able to calculate and pace her innings without putting undue pressure on the team, either batting first or second. Despite her well-known pedigree as a batter, another aspect of her personality is her tremendous mental strength, which she displayed after she came back from being dropped for the England game to make an unbeaten 127 off 134 balls against Australia in the semi-final to help India chase down a world-record score of 339 runs.

Did you know: Before taking up cricket full-time, Jemimah Rodrigues represented Maharashtra at the Under-17 level in field hockey.

Agra’s Wonder Woman: Deepti Sharma

Age: 28
Role: All-rounder
Agra, Uttar Pradesh

Deepti Sharma’s journey began with a throw. As a kid eager to follow everywhere her brother Sumit went, in whites with his kit bag, Deepti once picked up the ball that came towards her and threw it back like a bullet. It caught former India player Hemalata Kala’s eye. Having made her India debut at 17, Deepti has come a long way as India’s most reliable all-rounder for more than a decade. Sumit, who gave up his corporate job a decade back to train Deepti full-time, converted her from a pacer to a spinner so she could remain fit and perform all three disciplines at an optimum level. And she has gone from strength to strength, going past 150 wickets in ODIs, behind only Jhulan Goswami among Indians. Having batted in the top order early in her career, these days she has made a name for herself lower down, her batting having improved over the past year. In the field, she still loves a good throw.

Did you know? Deepti Sharma has a highest ODI score of 188, the best by an Indian woman. It came against Ireland in 2017.

The standout all-rounder of the tournament, Deepti Sharma became the first woman to bag 200-plus runs and 15-plus wickets in a World Cup edition. (Express Photo by Narendra Vaskar)

Siliguri six-hitter: Richa Ghosh

Age: 22
Role: Wicketkeeper-batter
Siliguri, West Bengal

Manabendra Ghosh never discouraged his daughter Richa from being a big hitter. While coaches focused on her fundamentals, Manabendra encouraged Richa to train for hitting fours and sixes, even at the cost of a few broken windows at their home. He wanted her to take up table tennis but Richa insisted on cricket and was the first girl to enroll at Baghajatin Athletic Club, where her journey began taking on male cricketers on the Kolkata circuit. To help Richa’s journey, Manabendra closed his business in Siliguri and started accompanying her on the visits to Kolkata. In domestic cricket, Richa had dabbled in all three disciplines, but early in her international career, after a tough night in the field, India decided to hand her the gloves and she’s been the designated wicketkeeper since. Her power-hitting has gone up a notch or two since she joined Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the WPL, as she went about training to access all areas of the pitch.

Did you know: Richa Ghosh made her T20I debut at 16 when she came on as a concussion substitute in the 2020 Women’s World Cup final.

The Viral Catch: Harleen Deol

Age:27
Role: Top-order batter
Chandigarh

Harleen Deol started doing the rounds in junior cricket in Himachal Pradesh as a skilled batter and handy off-break bowler. However, due to sparse facilities and an underdeveloped cricket culture, she had to relocate to Chandigarh, which proved to be a turning point. She first made headlines for her exploits in the Women’s T20 Challenge, and those performances earned her a call-up for an ODI series against England in 2019. However, with constant squad rotation to find the right combination, Deol could not become a permanent fixture immediately. Her next moment to remember came in 2021, when she made headlines for her fielding. Playing an ODI against England at Northampton, she took a smartly-judged catch on the long-off boundary, where she used her presence of mind to flick the ball inside the boundary in time before getting back into the field of play to take the catch. Recently, Deol found some stability in the squad and started the tournament as the designated No.3.

Did you know: Deol’s stunning catch in England was featured on ESPN Sportscenter and the post has more than 1 million likes on Instagram.

Scholar, opener: Pratika Rawal

Age: 25
Role: Opening batter
Delhi

When her father Pradeep Rawal took Pratika to Rohtak Road Gymkhana to work with Shravan Kumar, she was the first girl to train there. Today, the number of female trainees there is close to 30. Pradeep, who harboured his own cricketing ambitions and is a BCCI-certified umpire, had decided that he’d make his first child an athlete. Pratika was proficient in basketball as well in Modern School. But aged 9, it was decided that cricket was the path she’d follow. While the lockdown delayed her progress to the Indian team, she practised with Pradeep on the terrace of their building in makeshift nets. Pratika was a brilliant student as well, scoring more than 92% in her 10th & 12th boards, and completing her graduation in psychology too. After getting her ODI call-up to replace Shafali Verma, she struck a prolific opening partnership with Smriti Mandhana in quick time, before an injury ended her World Cup campaign before the semifinals.

Did you know: Pratika holds the record for being the quickest to reach 1,000 runs in women’s ODIs.

Hope for a region: Uma Chetry

Age: 23
Role: Wicketkeeper-batter
At CWC25:
Golaghat, Assam

As an MS Dhoni fan growing up and later idolising Harmanpreet Kaur, Uma Chetry is experiencing the best of both worlds. The influence of watching Dhoni is bound to have played a role in her taking up wicketkeeping, and when she became consistent enough in the skill as well as with the bat, she got a chance to share the same dressing room with Harmanpreet. Chetry is the only player from India’s North-East in the 2025 Women’s World Cup squad and represents the hopes of an entire region, as far as the future of the women’s game in that part of the country is concerned. Originally picked as a reserve, Chetry was drafted into India’s squad after an injury to Yastika Bhatia ruled her out of the tournament. Indeed, it was another injury, this time to first-choice wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh, which paved the way for Chetry to make her ODI debut against Bangladesh in this World Cup.

Did you know: Chetry became the first woman cricketer from the North-East to play for India when she made her T20I debut against South Africa in Chennai in July 2024.

Tribal star: Kranti Gaud

Age: 22
Role: Fast bowler
Ghuwara, Madhya Pradesh

Ghuwara, a two-hour drive from district headquarters Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh, has no cricket training facility to talk about. But Kranti Gaud, the daughter of an ex-police constable, wanted to emulate the bhaiyyas who played tennis-ball cricket in the only ground there. A natural athlete, Kranti, the youngest of six siblings in a scheduled tribe family, first made a name for herself as a six-hitting batter in tennis-ball matches before coming under the wings of Chhatarpur-based coach Rajiv Bilthare, a promoter of women’s cricket in the region. The family didn’t allow disparaging, prejudiced remarks about a girl playing cricket with boys to come in the way of Kranti’s cricketing dreams. Her mother pawned her jewellery when the family fell on hard times. After winning the player-of-the-match award against Pakistan at this World Cup, Kranti – who stays in a two-room police quarters along with her family – revealed that those back in her village had installed an LED screen to watch her play.

Did you know? Kranti’s figures of 6-52 against England this year are the best figures for an Indian in women’s ODIs against that team.

Team India celebrate the wicket of SA captain Laura Wolvaardt in the Women’s World Cup final. (Express Photo by Narendra Vaskar)

Comeback queen: Sneh Rana

Age: 31
Role: Spin-all rounder
At CWC 25: 99 runs, 7 wickets
Dehradun, Uttarakhand

Sneh Rana’s name has almost become synonymous with comebacks. She made her debut in 2014, and was left out around 2016. It took her five years to return, donning the whites in 2021 for a one-off Test in England. That happened shortly after the death of her father, Bhagwan Singh, who was crucial in supporting Sneh’s cricket career. Growing up, Sneh was the outdoorsy kind who played multiple sports with boys. Recognizing her talent at age nine, her father enrolled her at a cricket academy. Sneh was in and out of the Indian team, so she worked on her variations on the domestic circuit and also focused on power-hitting to improve her batting. After standing in as skipper for Gujarat Giants in the Women’s Premier League, she was released before the 2025 season and went unpicked in the auction too. But she was picked by RCB as a late replacement and went on to impress enough with bat and ball to earn her place back in India’s squad too.

Did you know: Her 80* in Bristol to save a Test match is the highest-ever by an Indian batting at No.8.

Doing it for late dad: Renuka Singh Thakur

Age: 29
Role: Pacer
Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

After her father’s death when Renuka was just 3, her journey has been moulded by mother Sunita and her brother Vinod. After receiving her India call-up in 2021, Renuka recalled how much her father loved cricket, so much that he had named her brother after his favourite cricketer Vinod Kambli. Renuka’s father worked at the Irrigation and Public health department, where Sunita would join after his death. Renuka would accompany Vinod to the village ground, and play in the boys’ teams. She would pick up wooden sticks or plastic bats from home or the neighbourhood to play alongside boys. Renuka’s uncle Bhupinder Singh Thakur advised her to attend trials at the HPCA Women’s residential academy in Dharamshala, a brainchild of former BCCI president Anurag Singh Thakur. There she worked on improving her fitness and control. Renuka quickly became a fixture in the Indian squad after her debut as she had the ability to prodigiously swing the ball into right-handers, but has also worked on getting them to straighten past the outside edge.

Did you know: Renuka was the leading wicket-taker at the 2022 Commonwealth Games with 11 scalps.

Bold move: Arundhati Reddy

Age: 28
Role: Pace-all rounder
Hyderabad

Arundhati Reddy made her T20I debut in 2018 but had to wait a long time for her chance to play ODIs. It was only in 2024 against South Africa in Bengaluru that she got her 50-over bow and a year later, she made the cut for the World Cup. Having started her journey with Hyderabad in domestic cricket and impressing with her natural athleticism, Arundhati moved to Railways. Presenting her ODI cap, Smriti Mandhana applauded Arundhati’s bold call, calling it a ‘big decision that I don’t think many of us would have made’ as she moved to Kerala. After a chat with former India fielding coach Biju George, she made the shift. It also required Arundhati to convince her mother. “I am glad those 3 years happened because I am the cricketer I am today because of that,” she had said on the day of her ODI debut. At the T20 World Cup against Pakistan last year, she was the match-winner.

Did you know: Growing up, Arundhati idolised MS Dhoni and wanted to be a wicketkeeper but was nudged by her coaches to become a seam-bowling allrounder.

Cricket migrant: Radha Yadav

Age: 25
Role: Spin-all rounder
Baroda, Gujarat

Born in Mumbai, Radha Yadav plays for Baroda in domestic cricket and is the first woman cricketer from the Gujarat team to be picked in the Indian team. Without doubt the best fielder in the side, Radha was a T20I specialist for a long time, playing in that format from 2018. Having made her ODI debut in 2021, it wasn’t until 2024 that she played in the format again. If it wasn’t for an injury to rookie spinner Shuchi Upadhyay, Radha might not have made it to the squad for England this summer. Coach Praful Naik spotted a young Radha in 2012 playing cricket inside a compound in Kandivali and it stuck with him how she charged towards a boy who was holding onto the bat despite getting out. He took the initiative to convince her father, a vegetable vendor, to make her a cricketer. The Yadavs lived in a small house and couldn’t afford to spend on sports. Radha then moved to Baroda when Naik shifted base.

Did you know: Radha once went on a record run of picking up at least one wicket in 27 consecutive T20Is.

Dad carved her bat: Amanjot Kaur

Age: 25
Role: Pace-all rounder
Chandigarh

Bhupinder Singh, a carpenter, found one evening that his daughter Amanjot was upset because the boys in their neighbourhood didn’t let her play as she didn’t have a bat. He went to his shop and returned late in the night with a wooden bat he himself had carved. It would be the first bat that Amanjot owned. Despite the taunting she faced, Bhupinder encouraged her to play. When she turned 14, he took Amanjot to coach Nagesh Gupta. Despite initially not having a spot for her, Nagesh took her on board. Amanjot was player of the match on her T20I debut but a back stress fracture and a hand ligament injury saw her miss a big chunk of 2024. It was at the WPL with Mumbai Indians this year that Amanjot signalled her return. Nagesh said that Amanjot took a while to come to terms with it, but became more spiritual as she plotted her comeback.

Did you know: Amanjot was only the second player to make a 50+ score batting at No.8 or lower at a Women’s World Cup, when she rescued India against Sri Lanka.

Athletics’ loss, cricket’s gain: Sree Charani

Age: 21
Role: Spinner
Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh

When she was in Class III, Sree Charani started playing with her mama Kishore Reddy at their home with plastic bats, and followed him to the grounds in the quarters where she competed with players way above her age. For Kishore, cricket was just a hobby but it would be the foundation for Charani’s sharp rise. It was athletics that she was serious about early on at school. When she was in Class X, her physical education instructor, Naresh, brought her to Hyderabad for selections at the Sports Authority of India training centre in Gachibowli. Former India selector MSK Prasad saw her athleticism and suggested she try cricket. At the WPL, she earned the trust of Meg Lanning with her dedication in training and impressed enough to make her way to the ODI squad, where India were chopping and changing with the left-arm spinner’s slot that she has made her own.

Did you know: Sree Charani finished with 10 wickets in T20Is in England, becoming the player of the series in her debut outing.

Redemption arc: Shafali Verma

Age: 21
Role: Opening batter
Rohtak, Haryana

The story goes that Sanjeev Sharma got a 10-year-old Shafali to cut her hair really short so that she could pass off as her older sick brother in an all-boys’ school team, and she went on to become the player of the tournament. It didn’t take long for Shafali to capture the imagination of Indian cricket. In the precursor to the WPL – the Women’s T20 Challenge – her blistering attacking approach as a 15-year-old was something the women’s game hadn’t seen. And she took down Aussie legend Megan Schutt for a six in her first tour Down Under. A huge fan of Sachin Tendulkar, Shafali broke his record for being the youngest Indian to score an international half- century at 15. She also led India to their first ICC title at a women’s event at the inaugural U19 T20 World Cup. Her rise to the top was rapid but recent inconsistencies saw her fall out of favour, before Pratika Rawal’s injury brought her back into the fold.

Did you know: Shafali is only the second Indian woman to hit a double century in Test cricket after Mithali Raj