Harmanpreet Kaur scripted history when she became the first Indian woman to scored a half-century at the Commonwealth Games. The Indian captain, who came on the pitch after opener Smriti Mandhana got dismissed, played a 52 runs knock off 34 balls, helped India to put up a score of 154 in her maiden Commonwealth Games berth.
Kaur, who is an all-rounder for the Indian women’s cricket team, was born on March 8, 1989 in Moga Punjab, her love for cricket developed after joining the Gian Jyoti School Academy, which was 30km away from her residence in the town. She trained with her coach Kamaldeep Singh Sodhi, who motivated her to play cricket.
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In a chat with sportstarlive.com, she once said, “There is not much professional cricket anyway in my city, and women’s cricket is non-existent. Still, my coach and principal Kamaldeep Singh Sodhi supported me in playing cricket and even started a girls’ team because of me. That was a huge thing to do back then, and I will always be grateful for that.”
Harmanpreet has always admired Virender Sehwag and his style of playing that she adopted at a young age. While discussing about the innings against Australia in 2017 World Cup, she said, “I like to bat that way. Since childhood, I have played cricket with the boys, who used to hit sixes, and I liked it too.”
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She made her ODI debut during the World Cup match against Pakistan in 2009 and her Test debut in 2014 during the England Tour.
Harmanpreet is the first woman from India who scored a century during the Women’s Twenty20 International (WT20I) match and was also awarded the prestigious Arjuna Award for cricket in the year 2017 by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
