Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service
Moga, February 14
Parents of Harmanpreet Kaur, captain of the Indian women cricket team, were delighted over her selection as captain in the Mumbai Indians team ahead of the inaugural season of Women Premier League. She was picked-up in the auction for Rs 1.80 crore owing to her ‘professionalism and winning abilities’.
Harmanpreet’s father Harmandar Singh Bhullar said her daughter’s consistent performance in the past one decade has taken her to new heights. “It’s a proud moment for me and the whole family, relatives and friends that she has been picked-up by Mumbai Indians team”, he said.
He said that her daughter was in good form and would definitely deliver the best in the WPL, which was a challenging task before her. She will keep the aspirations of the owners of Mumbai Indians at high with her ‘professionalism and winning abilities’, he said.
About Harmanpreet’s jackpot of Rs 1.80 crore, Harmandar Singh Bhullar said that his daughter has been rewarded for her performance and obviously she has a great opportunity before her to perform her best. “She’s got good confidence and is full of energy”, he added.
Meanwhile, in a video posted on Mumbai Indian’s Twitter handle, Harmanpreet Kaur said, “I have always seen Mumbai Indians doing well in the IPL and now I also have a chance to be part of the Mumbai Indians team and I hope we will make a good team. It’s a game-changer for all of us because we will experience this kind of pressure for the first time. I am very excited and at the same time, this will entirely change women’s cricket not only in India but in world cricket too. It’s a great initiative and we are looking forward to that. We all are coming to Mumbai and hope we will get all the support from Mumbai Indians. MI fans have always been very great and like how MI men have been doing, we would like to contribute the same way”.
In the initial days of her career, Harmanpreet emulated former cricketer Virender Sehwag as her role model to play fast and get big scores. At the same time, she followed the footsteps of Rahul Dravid to stay at the wicket for a long time. Now, the women cricketer says she will learn from her counterpart Rohit Sharma to win the games.
It may be mentioned that Harmanpreet’s run-scoring abilities had saved her team on many occasions.
In her school days she used to play cricket with boys at Gian Jyoti School at Darapur village in Moga district, her school Principal Kamaljeet Singh Sodhi instituted a girls cricket team at the school level. She first played at the inter-district level in 2007 from where she was chosen by the Punjab Cricket Association for the Punjab team. Later, she was picked-up in the Indian team and was playing for the country for the past one decade. Last year, she was selected as Captain of the Indian team.
Her father was also a sportsman and had played football at the state level. He never objected to her playing cricket with boys at the initial stage.
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