‘Numb, unable to understand’: Harmanpreet Kaur on India’s maiden World Cup triumph

Navi Mumbai: For someone who burst into tears of joy in the dugout after her team’s incredible semifinal win over Australia, Indian women’s team captain Harmanpreet Kaur was all smiles the day India finally lifted their first-ever Women’s World Cup trophy.

Beaming with pride, she walked into the press conference room with the trophy by her side.Beginning with a dose of humour, Harmanpreet took a dig at her wretched luck with tosses — she lost eight out of nine, including the one in the final. “From the first ball itself, I had the belief that it doesn’t matter — because we don’t normally win the toss — we knew we had to bat first,” she said with a grin.

Asked about the feeling of finally touching a trophy that India had waited so long to claim, she asserted that her team’s “self-belief” made the difference.

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“I’m just trying to express what I’m feeling. I’m numb, I’m not able to understand. There were ups and downs, but the team had self-belief. I’ve been saying this since day one. We weren’t looking to the left or right. We were only focused on our main goal. We felt we could win from the first ball itself because of the way our team was playing in the last three games. A lot changed for us, especially our self-belief. We’ve played good cricket for a long time.

We knew what we could do as a team. We knew there would be tough conditions for batting, but credit goes to Smriti [Mandhana] and Shafali [Verma]; they handled the first 10 overs very well.”As South Africa threatened to chase down 299, riding on captain Laura Wolvaardt’s century, Harmanpreet sent out a clear message to her team. “I was just telling them — keep faith. We’ve worked really hard for this. Opportunities will come, and we have to grab them.

ODI cricket is long; there are many phases you have to tick off again and again. When we went in, we thought we just need 10 good balls, 10 wickets — and that’s exactly what happened.

”Many feel this is Indian women’s cricket’s ‘83 moment. Harmanpreet is aware of what this triumph means for the women’s game in India. “We’ve been talking about this for many years — we’ve been playing good cricket, but we had to win one big tournament.

Without that, we couldn’t talk about change. We were waiting badly for this moment, and today we got a chance to live it. I don’t know how to express it, but I’m so happy and so proud of this team.

”

Opening up about how India’s World Cup campaign became deeply emotional, Harmanpreet revealed that when Yastika Bhatia and later Pratika Rawal were ruled out of the tournament due to injuries, the dressing room was left in tears.

“I think it’s all destiny; I really believe in that. And we didn’t want Pratika to face any such thing. When she got injured, everybody was crying. Even before that, when Yastika got injured during our training camp, everybody was crying because this team is very special.

They pray for each other. They stay together in ups and downs.”

‘England defeat changed a lot for us’

Reflecting on the team’s rollercoaster ride that saw them in danger of an early exit after losing three successive matches, Harmanpreet said that the heartbreaking loss to England transformed the side.

The players began working on visualisation and meditation sessions to refocus.“The last month has been very interesting. It’s very rare that things don’t go according to plan, and yet you stay so positive. After losing the England match, we were really heartbroken. Sir said that night, ‘You can’t make the same mistakes again and again. You have to cross that line.’ After that day, a lot changed for us. We started visualisation and meditation.

Everyone took it seriously and started enjoying it. That showed we were here for something, and this time we had to do it,” Harmanpreet reflected.The ‘Sir’ she referred to was India head coach Amol Muzumdar, who Harmanpreet felt brought stability to the dressing room after a period of frequent coaching changes. “His contribution over the last two and a half years has been amazing. Before that, coaches were changing frequently; we didn’t know how to bring things forward.

But after Sir came, everything became stable and smooth. He gets a lot of credit for building this team,” she praised.

The long hug with Mandhana

After taking a catch at extra cover that sealed South Africa’s final wicket, Harmanpreet sprinted across the field, embracing all her teammates and support staff in celebration. The longest hug was reserved for vice-captain and star batter Smriti Mandhana. Having played 106 ODIs together, both were savouring India’s maiden World Cup triumph after enduring many heartbreaking campaigns.

“I’ve played many World Cups with her [Mandhana]. Every time we lost, we went home heartbroken and stayed quiet for a few days. When we returned, we always said, ‘We have to start again from ball one.’ It was heartbreaking because we played so many World Cups — reaching finals, semi-finals, and sometimes not even that far. We were always thinking, when will we break this?” Harmanpreet said.Asked how it felt to share the moment of glory with former India greats

Mithali Raj

,

Jhulan Goswami

, and Anjum Chopra, who all joined in the celebrations, Harmanpreet said, “Jhulan di was my biggest support.

When I joined the team, she was leading it. She always supported me in my early days when I was very raw and didn’t know much about cricket. Anjum di, too. Both of them have been a great support for me. I’m very grateful that I got to share this special moment with them. It was a very emotional moment. I think we all were waiting for this.

Finally, we were able to touch this trophy.”

‘DY Patil Stadium is our home’

It’s clear that Harmanpreet Kaur & Co believe the DY Patil Stadium, which started regularly hosting India women’s white-ball matches since 2022 — and even staged a Test win over England in December 2023 — is a lucky venue for them.

It’s the same sort of special connection that the Indian men’s team perhaps shares with Wankhede (2011 World Cup win) or Kolkata (the 2001 Test heist over Australia).The 39,555-strong Navi Mumbai crowd stayed through a two-hour rain delay to watch Harmanpreet and her band lift the World Cup trophy, cheering for the Women in Blue all of Sunday. Harmanpreet revealed that her side felt relieved when they learnt that the venue for the Women’s ODI World Cup had been shifted from Bengaluru to Navi Mumbai in August.

“As soon as we got to know that our venue had been changed to DY Patil Stadium, we all got so happy because we’ve always played good cricket there. The biggest thing is the crowd — it’s always so supportive. So, when the venue changed from Bengaluru, we all started messaging in the group. We were manifesting. We said, ‘The final is going to be there; we won’t leave it now.’ As soon as we reached Mumbai, we said, ‘We’ve come home now, and we’ll start fresh.

’ We didn’t want to look back at previous World Cups; we left them there. The new World Cup had just started.”Asked how her team was planning to celebrate the historic triumph, Harmanpreet quipped, “We’ve been waiting for this moment. The celebration will go on all night. And then let’s see what

BCCI

is planning for us.” With the match itself stretching past midnight, the celebrations went deep into the night. After the victory lap and presentations, the Indian team was still on the ground before heading to their nearby hotel.