Time to drop Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana my choice for next India captain: Diana Edulji
India Today
India women's tour of New Zealand: Diana Edulji said Harmanpreet Kaur and Shafali Verma need to be dropped as the former captain expressed disappointment with the star batters' poor run of form.
Former India captain Diana Edulji has criticized Harmanpreet Kaur over the India T20I captain's poor run of form in international cricket, saying it's time to drop the star batter from the playing XI. Harmanpreet has made only two 50 plus scores since the 2017 World Cup in England where India reached the final but has been a regular member in the line-up.
Diana Edulji, speaking to the PTI, said Harmanpreet can't survive on the 171 she made during the 2017 World Cup semi-final and the team should take a tough call, highlighting that the yardsticks for all players should be same. Edulji referred to dropping of Jemimah Rodrigues who has not traveled to New Zealand for the limited-overs series and the Women's World Cup in March after the selectors snubbed her due to poor form.
Harmanpreet had fitness issues last year but after an impressive WBBL, she was expected to replicate that performance at the highest level. The 32-year-old has scored 20 runs across 2 ODIs against New Zealand after managing 12 in the one-off T20I.
India are yet to open their account in New Zealand. They lost the one-off T20I are starting at another series defeat in the five-match ODI fixture.
She is yet to fire in the bilateral rubber against New Zealand with India staring at another series defeat.
"If you are going with the same yardstick which was used to drop Jemimah Rodrigues, what the coach (Ramesh Powar) had mentioned, the same yardstick should be applied to Harmanpreet," Edulji said.
"I am very disappointed with her. She was my favourite player but you can't survive on that one innings (171 against Australia in 2017). She is only one innings away from a big knock but the effort has to be there.
