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Cricket PlayersHow will the Smriti Mandhana era differ from Harmanpreet Kaur's
As evident in her titles with RCB, Mandhana’s understated style of leadership is rooted in relationships
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A journalist once told Smriti Mandhana that she looked quite emotional after a game.
“Was I?” came the response.
It was quintessential Mandhana.
Deep Dive
For years, India had a captain who wore her heart on her sleeve. Harmanpreet Kaur’s cricket was visceral. You could see it during her record-breaking innings, her celebrations, the frustration, and the occasional confrontation with an umpire or an opponent.
She was willing to take people on and one could argue that in some ways, the team often needed somebody who would. But as the Indian cricket team now enter tournaments as favourites, challenging the best sides in the world, it almost feels like Smriti’s assured style is better suited.
“As a captain, she was as aggressive as she was as a batter,” former India coach WV Raman said of Harmanpreet. “On the field, she was fired up most of the time. I had to tell her to calm down sometimes.”
“Yet, she was very approachable, contrary to what people made out of her. If you looked at her having a chat with the younger girls, you would think it was just someone who had come to meet them; you wouldn’t think it was Harmanpreet Kaur, the captain.
“She always spoke to them softly, had a laugh with them, and made them feel comfortable,” he added.
Mandhana, meanwhile, has seen several styles from close quarters. She played under Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet, two vastly different captains. At the Women’s Premier League, she captained Heather Knight and Sophie Devine, both former international captains themselves.
Her years across the Women’s Big Bash League, The Hundred and the WPL have exposed her to coaches and leaders from different cricketing cultures.
At the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Mandhana arrived carrying the expectations attached to one of India’s biggest franchises. She eventually became the first RCB captain to deliver a title, breaking a drought that had become part of the franchise’s identity.
The Mandhana seen at RCB was still understated. Over time, her imprint on the team became clearer, and in the recent edition, she took a more proactive role in personnel and selection decisions, leading them to another title. The squad increasingly looked like it had personnel she knew and trusted — Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil and Pooja Vastrakar among them.
That mattered because Mandhana’s leadership appears to be rooted in relationships. Away from cricket, there is an easy camaraderie with several of the younger players. The Instagram Reels and jokes with Jemimah Rodrigues, Shreyanka, Arundhati and Radha might seem incidental, but they reveal something about the environment she naturally revels in.
“In these past two years she has led her team to victory in the WPL. She made them winners in the WPL (2024. 2026), has leadership qualities and has performed for the team. She is also scoring runs for Team India,” said Hemlata Kala, former selector. “At the moment, there is no one like Smriti Mandhana… I feel there couldn’t be a better choice than her,”
There is another characteristic that could define Mandhana’s captaincy: accountability. She can be relentlessly hard on herself. Much like a corporate set-up, the work ethos of a boss often dictates how the rest of the team looks.
Humble about her achievements, even those of an almost generational scale – such as breaking the record for most runs in a calendar year or most runs in women's international cricket — she can sometimes seem almost too modest about her own abilities.
Listen to her responses in press conferences and post-match interviews and she is rarely one to dwell on her accomplishments, often downplaying even the most remarkable ones.
Despite scoring 88 in India’s 4-run defeat to England at the ODI World Cup, Mandhana almost dismissed their significance. “I wouldn’t really want to talk about my innings because it doesn’t mean anything because we lost,” she said.
Instead, her attention immediately went to the mistake. “Maybe the shot wasn’t needed at that time. I just needed to be more patient… maybe the emotions took over for that one, which never helps in cricket.”
Mandhana may not display emotion as visibly as Harmanpreet, but she likely turns much of it inward. “The team is fully aware of what needs to be done, and Smriti is likely aware of the areas that need to be spruced up and plugged,” Raman added. “She is in a much better place than Harman was when she first picked up the captaincy.”
Harmanpreet helped build a team that learnt how to fight hard but Mandhana is inheriting one that already knows it can win. The job is now more about making winning a habit.
