Harmanpreet Kaur announces resignation as India captain with Lord’s photograph
Harmanpreet Kaur announced on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, that she was stepping down as India’s captain via an Instagram post that used a photograph of her standing on the Lord’s balcony taken during a July photoshoot ahead of the historic Women’s Test between India and England at Lord’s.
In the image she chose for the post she is dressed in a dark blue blazer and white trousers, her hair in a tight ponytail and her hands clasped behind her back; the camera captured the moment from behind at Lord’s in northwest London. The Test at Lord’s was the first-ever women’s Test held at the ground, which the article notes has a 239-year history. Her Instagram message, posted on Tuesday (October 6, 2026), has attracted 1.4 million views and about 30,500 comments, and the piece observes that not all those viewers would previously have been long-time followers of women’s cricket.
The article credits Harmanpreet with forcing Indian cricket fans to take a closer interest in the women’s game and highlights her match-winning 171 not out off 115 balls in the 2017 World Cup semifinal at Derby against defending champions Australia. It reports that former Australian captain Alyssa Healy said the innings “even forced her team to change the way it played its cricket,” and that Virender Sehwag tweeted, "Harmanpreet Kaur...Fan!"
The profile recalls Harmanpreet’s origins in Punjab’s Moga and says that, as a little girl wanting to be a cricketer, she was teased by her brother with the line, "What will you do — open with Sehwag?" Two years after the Derby innings, the piece says Harmanpreet told the writer during an interview in Surat that she had long wished for people to come and watch women play cricket and felt grateful that destiny chose her to play a part in widening the audience.
The article attributes broader growth in visibility and professionalism in Indian women’s cricket to the BCCI taking the game under its umbrella, citing the launch of the Women’s Premier League in 2023 and India’s victory at the ODI World Cup at home last year as factors that expanded the fan base. It states Harmanpreet was the captain who led India to that World Cup win — described as India’s first global trophy in women’s cricket — and that she was also the skipper when the Mumbai Indians won the inaugural WPL edition. Under her leadership, the piece notes, India won the Asia Cup and the gold medal at the Asian Games, and earlier still the team beat England in the Test at Lord’s, which was only her fifth Test as captain.
The article provides career figures: Harmanpreet led India in 51 One-Day Internationals and 155 Twenty20 Internationals and has played eight Tests, 164 ODIs and 210 T20Is overall. It records that she debuted for India in 2009, that her first coach Yadwinder Singh had her practise by hitting “100 to 150 sixes every day,” and that she first led the country at the Asia Cup in 2012, when India emerged as champions.
Harmanpreet has said she wants to continue to play for India despite resigning as captain, the article adds, noting that her totals "could grow further" and that "she has plenty to offer as a player, and India needs her in the line-up."