Smriti Mandhana named India women’s captain as Harmanpreet Kaur steps down

Smriti Mandhana named India women's captain as Harmanpreet Kaur steps down Harmanpreet.

Key points

• Harmanpreet, who led India to the 2025 ODI World Cup title, confirmed earlier in the day that she was relinquishing the captaincy throughout formats.
• Smriti Mandhana has been appointed captain of the Indian women's cricket team, the BCCI confirmed on Tuesday, the day Harmanpreet Kaur stepped down from the role.
• Smriti Mandhana takes over the captaincy reign from Harmanpreet Kaur.

Smriti Mandhana named India women's captain as Harmanpreet Kaur steps down Harmanpreet. This person led India to the 2025 ODI World Cup title, confirmed earlier in the day that she was relinquishing the captaincy throughout formats. By: Express News Service. 3 min readOct 6, 2026 09: 13 PM IST.

Smriti Mandhana takes over the captaincy reign from Harmanpreet Kaur. (BCCI FOR CREIMAS).

Harmanpreet, who led India to the 2025 ODI World Cup title, confirmed earlier in the day that she was relinquishing the captaincy throughout formats. "Today, I step down as captain of the Indian Women's Cricket Team across all formats, " she wrote in a post. Reports remarked the decision followed a BCCI review gathering in Guwahati that assessed the team's performances over recent months, including India's exit from the T20 World Cup before the semifinals.

"Smriti has been one of the leading figures in Indian women's cricket over the years and has played a key role in the team's progress across formats, " the BCCI remarked in a release. It continued that she "has also demonstrated her leadership qualities in domestic and franchise cricket", most lately leading Royal Challengers Bengaluru to Women's Premier League titles in 2024 and 2026.

In short, smriti Mandhana named India women's captain as Harmanpreet Kaur steps down is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.