Harmanpreet Kaur

India 🇮🇳

Her father's passion for the game rubbed off on Harmanpreet Kaur Bhullar, who has been sending the bowlers on a leather hunt since the gully cricket days in Moga, Punjab. Indian women's circuit has her childhood coach Kamaldish Singh Sodhi to thank, who instinctively decided to build a girls' team from scratch after spotting an otherwise timid girl plonk the balls out of the park so effortlessly.

Starting off as a medium pace all-rounder, Harmanpreet came up through the ranks, sooner than she'd hoped, on the back of consistent performances. Even before she could realise, Harmanpreet found herself in India's 2009 World T20 squad. Incidentally, the news of the national call-up reached her only through teammate Punam Raut, during a causal phone call.

But the real struggle started only after she got into the side. As an aspiring lead bowler, Harmanpreet only had to endure one frustrating day in the field after another thanks to the presence of stalwarts like Jhulan Goswami and Amita Sharma. That's when she put all her energies into developing her batting a notch above others, and soon became a go-to batter in crisis situations. On her father's insistence, Harmanpreet turned into an off-spinner, thus establishing herself as a vital cog in the side.