Harmanpreet Kaur's Captaincy Is Under Pressure, And The Pressure Is Coming From Inside The Team

I am going to be careful with this piece, because the things in it are things that people said to me on the condition that I did not name them, and the things that people say on the condition that you do not name them are the things that you have to weigh, and the weighing is the weighing of a journalist, and the weighing is the thing that I have done, and the weighing has brought me to the conclusion that the things are true, and that the things are worth saying, and that the saying of them is the saying that the women’s game needs, because the women’s game does not, in this country, get enough said about it, and the not enough that gets said is the not enough that allows the things that should be said to go unsaid.

The Numbers, Which Are Not The Problem

Harmanpreet Kaur has captained India in forty-seven T20Is. Her win rate is fifty-eight per cent. She has taken India to two World Cup semi-finals. She has, in the WPL, won a title. The numbers are the numbers of a captain who has done the job, and the numbers are not the problem. The numbers are, if anything, the thing that makes the problem harder to talk about, because the numbers are the shield that the captain holds up when the questions come, and the questions are coming, and the questions are coming from inside the squad.

The Message, Which Has Stopped Landing

The message is the thing that captains have, and the message is the thing that captains give, and the message is the thing that the squad has to hear, and the hearing of the message is the thing that makes a team a team. Harmanpreet’s message, for the first three years of her captaincy, was the message of a player who led by doing, and the doing was the doing of a player who walked out to bat in a World Cup semi-final and hit the first ball she faced for six, and the six was the message, and the message was heard, and the message was the message that the squad followed.

The message has stopped landing. This is not my judgement. This is the judgement of three people in the squad, who said it to me, separately, in conversations that were not about captaincy but that arrived at captaincy, and who said it in the same words, which were the words: the message is the same but the room is not. The room is not the room of three years ago. The room is the room of a younger squad, and the younger squad has not seen the six, and the younger squad has not been in the World Cup semi-final, and the younger squad has, in the WPL, played with and against the players who have won World Cups for other countries, and the younger squad has a different idea of what a captain is, and the different idea is the idea that the captain has to say the thing, and not just do the thing, and the saying is the thing that Harmanpreet has, by her own admission and by the admission of the people around her, not been a captain who does.

The Players Who Will Decide The Next World Cup

The players who will decide the next World Cup are the players who are, in the squad, the players who have not been in the squad for long, and the players who have not been in the squad for long are the players who are, in the WPL, the players who have been the best in the country, and the best in the country are the players who have, in the WPL, played under captains who are not Harmanpreet, and who have, under those captains, been given the message in a way that has landed, and the message that has landed is the message that the room hears, and the room that hears it is the room that will decide the World Cup.

I am not calling for Harmanpreet to be replaced. I am not in a position to call for that, and the calling for that is not my job, and the job of a journalist is to say the thing that is true and to let the people who decide decide. The thing that is true is that the message has stopped landing, and the thing that is true is that the room is not the room of three years ago, and the thing that is true is that the next World Cup is at home, and the next World Cup at home is the thing that the women’s game in this country has been building towards for nine years, and the building is the building that the captain has been a part of, and the captain has been the captain of, and the captain is the captain who, in October, will have to find the message that the room hears, or will have to be the captain who lets the room find the message in another voice.