Harmanpreet Kaur with Mithali Raj
Indian women's T20I team skipper Harmanpreet Kaur on Wednesday was full of praise for veteran cricketer and ODI team skipper Mithali Raj admitting that she hasn't even played half the amount of cricket she played for India.
Harmanpreet also opened up on the controversy involving the axing of Mithali for the 2018 World T20 semifinal against England. Many criticised Harmanpreet and the level had risen after India lost the match. Harmanpreet, recalling the incident, said that it was a result of a few "biggies" from Indian cricket that she did not wish to name.
Mithali had however slammed coach Ramesh Powar and Diana Edulji for the selection decision on social media. But Harmanpreet ensured that is all is well between the two and they have made sure that it did not affect the team.
"There were such people, it's not the right platform to take the names. Because they are the biggies, some very big cricketers. When a team reaches certain stature, such things happen. Mithali Di is a lot senior to me. I haven’t played half the amount of cricket she has played. She has been playing cricket for 20 years, there’s no comparison between her and me," Harmanpreet told Harsha Bhogle in a conversation with Cricbuzz.
"I do not want to compare myself to her as I know that what she has given to women’s cricket, I would not have been able to contribute that even if I started playing cricket when she did. She has been contributing from a time when there was nothing for India's women’s cricket. I started performing when I had a ready platform. Both of us never let any incident affect the team’s bonding.
Harmanpreet also revealed that she did not see Mithali post on the selection snub but was made aware of it by her teammates.
"I am a very easy going person. A lot of things happen, but you have to ignore them. For example, while I had permission from my parents to go out and play while growing up, others objected to me playing with boys. My father told me from Day 1 to not focus on anything which I did not like.
"I am not active on social media so I don't read much into what’s going around. As you pointed out that the manager's post, I wasn’t even aware of it, it was shown to me by my team-mates. I told them to ignore it as when it did not bother me, it should not have bothered them," Harmanpreet added.
