Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has offered his opinions on India’s women’s skipper Harmanpreet Kaur after India’s second win in the ongoing Women’s World Cup 2025. For the middle-order batter, it’s a fifth appearance in the tournament and first as a captain.
Chopra believes that Kaur is playing under immense responsibility both as the captain and as a player in the tournament, which has come to affect her batting performance. He says, with two matches undergone, she could end up playing her final tournament of the ODI format.
“There will be pressure. Firstly, you are the captain. This is your fifth World Cup, the first as a captain, and it might be in her mind that this could probably be the last as well. It’s very unlikely that she will be in the next ODI World Cup. So, the pressure is there,” Chopra said during a discussion on Star Sports.
In the last match against Pakistan Women, Harmanpreet came at No. 4 and scored 19 runs off 34 balls, including two boundaries. Her performance in the opening match against Sri Lanka Women was another good start gone begging, scoring 21 runs off 19 balls.
Further speaking on the team’s contribution, Chopra went on to discuss the importance of performing under pressure. In this case it was India women’s captain, Harmanpreet Kaur.
He added, “If a team’s leader doesn’t score runs, doesn’t perform from the front, the team becomes slightly weak. So, the captain has to score. She will definitely be feeling slight pressure.”
India Women took home the second victory of the World Cup 2025 after dominating against Pakistan, winning the match by 88 runs. India set up the game with the bat and went on to score 247 before being all-out.
The batting line-up set up some decent performances, including opener Pratika Rawal (31 off 37). Harleen Deol was the high scorer with 46 runs off 65 balls. Other contributions came from Jemimah Rodrigues (32 off 37) and Richa Ghosh (35* off 20 balls). Smriti Mandhana failed again to bring in the required runs, ending up with 23 runs off 32 balls.
When it came to bowling, the India Women had some brilliant strikes coming in from fast bowler and Player of the Match Kranti Goud’s 3/20. Another prolific bowling performance came from spinner Deepti Sharma, who ended with 3/45. All-rounder Sneh Rana added two wickets to the strike.
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