Smriti Mandhana To Lead India in Initial Asian Games Matches As Harmanpreet Serves Ban
Smriti Mandhana will lead India in opening Asian Games matches | Source: X.com
The Indian Women’s Cricket team will miss the services of their regular captain Harmanpreet Kaur in the first two matches of the Asian Games in Hangzhou this September.
Notably, this news comes in the wake of Harmanpreet Kaur's ban by the International Cricket Council, stemming from her incident against the Bangladesh Women a couple of months back.
Why Harmanpreet Kaur has been banned?
During the final ODI match in Bangladesh earlier in July, Harmanpreet Kaur made waves when she smashed the stumps with her bat, and engaged in a heated argument with the umpire, and directed a gesture towards the audience.
Adding to the unexpected turn of events, Harmanpreet exhibited more unconventional behaviour by asking the Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana to invite the umpires for the trophy-sharing photo session, apparently suggesting they were part of the Bangladesh squad.
Following this, the Harmanpreet Kaur was handed a two-match ban by the International Cricket Council (ICC), based on two separate breaches of its Code of Conduct.
She was found guilty of breaching article 2.8 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, relating to “showing dissent at an umpire’s decision”.
Kaur was also fined 25 percent of her match fee for a Level 1 offence relating to "public criticism in relation to an incident occurring in an international match" when during the presentation ceremony, Kaur openly criticised the umpiring in the series.
Stepping up as the leader in the absence of Harmanpreet Kaur poses a big challenge for Smriti Mandhana, and it will be intriguing to see how she fills Harmanpreet Kaur's shoes.
India Women's Squad for Asian Games 2023
Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (Vice Captain), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Amanjot Kaur, Devika Vaidya, Pooja Vastrakar, Titas Sadhu, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Minnu Mani, Kanika Ahuja, Uma Chetry (wk), Anusha Bareddy
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