An Equal Pitch

With her destructive game, Harmanpreet Kaur has torn down gender divides and has given women’s cricket the visibility it never had

- KATHAKALI CHANDA

Their worlds might be poles apart, but in Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee, Harmanpreet Kaur, arguably the biggest game changer for women’s cricket in India, has an unlikely ally. Sometime this October, when word reached Banerjee that he has won the award for his experimental approach to alleviating poverty, the economist, admittedly not a morning person, is said to have gone back to bed. “I figured it would be a fault to the system if I don’t continue my sleep,” Banerjee told the Nobelprize.org of his reaction to the pre-dawn call from Stockholm.

It’s a sentiment that Harmanpreet deeply appreciates. “If I don’t get my sleep, I feel restless,” says the captain of the Indian T20 team, who’s also the first Indian cricketer to play a hundred T20 internationals. “Main kabhi bhi, kahin bhi so sakti hoon [I can sleep anywhere, anytime].” Her love for sleep extends even to the cricket field—a sleep-inducing match isn’t a mere figure of speech for the 30-year-old. “Agar game thodi si bhi boring hoti hai, mujhe neend aati hai [if the game is even slightly boring, I feel sleepy].”

It’s another matter though that when Harmanpreet is at the crease, one can kiss sleep goodbye. Standing barely five-and-a-half-feet tall, and her hair neatly tied in a ponytail like a schoolgirl, she doesn’t look the part. But once at the crease, this wiry girl from the Punjab small-town of Moga can send the crowd into delirium with her six-hitting abilities, just like her idol Virender Sehwag.

A glimpse of Harmanpreet’s Goliath-like avatar was evident back in 2009 when, playing her first tournament with the national team at the World Cup in Australia, she was asked to undergo a dope test for a six that she hoicked onto the roof of the stadium.