Credit: ICC/BCCI
On Monday, August 11, Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur made an appearance during the 50-day countdown launch event for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025, which will be played in India and Sri Lanka. While speaking at the event, Harmanpreet Kaur, who is well aware of India’s record in World Cups in women’s cricket, not only sounded confident about her team’s chances, but also aimed to “finally break the barrier” and win the coveted trophy for the first-time for the Indian fans.
Notably, India’s best performances in the ODI World Cup came in 2005 and 2017, and on both those occasions, they were runners-up to Australia and England respectively. In the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021, the previous edition of the tournament, the Indian cricket team finished in fifth place, outside of the semi-final spots, which wasn’t expected at the time considering their high standards over the past decade in international cricket.
In one of her comments at the 50-day countdown launch event for the ODI World Cup 2025, Harmanpreet Kaur shared her excitement of playing the tournament in front of the home fans. She was quoted as saying, “Playing in front of a home crowd is always special, and hopefully this time we'll give our 100 per cent and finally break the barrier that all Indian fans have been waiting for.”
It was very special: Harmanpreet Kaur remembers her epic 171* from ODI World Cup 2017
Apart from that, the 36-year-old also recalled her epic 171* in the semi-final of the ODI World Cup 2017, which single-handedly knocked Australia out of the tournament. She remarked, “I still remember that knock - it was very special. A lot changed for me personally after that. At the time, I didn't fully realise what had happened, but when we returned to India after losing the final, the number of people waiting and cheering for us was truly remarkable. That was something very special.”
Harmanpreet Kaur was also joined by her teammates Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues at the 50-day launch event for the ODI World Cup 2025, which was also attended by ICC Chairman Jay Shah and CEO Sanjog Gupta in Mumbai.
