After Harmanpreet Kaur resigned as the captain of the Indian women’s cricket team, the BCCI elevated Smriti Mandhana to the position on the same day, Tuesday (October 6).

The 30-year-old left-handed batter Mandhana was the obvious choice for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the captaincy across formats. However, a report claimed that Mandhana and Kaur “were not seeing eye to eye for a while now”, and due to this, the dressing room atmosphere was not good.

What report claimed

As per news agency PTI’s report, the resignation call from Harmanpreet, who led India for the first time in 2016, to step down from captaincy across formats was taken following a review meeting with the BCCI.

Also read: ‘I’ve done my duty’: Harmanpreet steps down from India women’s team captaincy

It was no secret that Mandhana had run out of patience with the BCCI selectors, who chose to maintain the status quo on captaincy even after India ended their ICC trophy drought with the ODI World Cup win at home last year, the report said.

In a recent interview, Mandhana, who has over 10,000 runs across formats, expressed her readiness to lead India and after the Asian Games 2026 gold in Japan, she went on to say that India should be aiming to win bigger tournaments.

In between the 50-over high, India had made premature exits from back to back T20 World Cups, raising questions over the leadership starting with the shortest format.

But the selectors did not bell the cat. But at the review meeting in Guwahati, which was chaired by BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia, it was made clear to Kaur that a change of guard was inevitable. She eventually decided to take matters in her own hands.

When Mithali Raj backed Smriti Mandhana for captaincy

The captaincy issue had also become a thorny issue between Harmanpreet and Mandhana.

“They were not seeing eye to eye for a while now and that led to an obvious unease in the dressing room,” said a team source, as per the report.

After India crashed out of T20 World Cup in the UK earlier this year, the legendary Mithali Raj had told the news agency that the selectors should have elevated Mandhana two or three years ago while questioning Harmanpreet’s form and fitness.

“I thought she would be given the captaincy of the ODI format two-three years back.

Smirti Mandhana's tribute to Harmanpreet Kaur

Even when Kaur took over the ODI captaincy from Raj, following the World Cup in 2022, the relations between the two veterans were at an all-time low.

A day after she stepped down from captaincy, Mandana paid tribute to Kaur’s 10 years of leadership.

“It’s been a pleasure playing with you for so many years. Ten years of your leadership have been fantastic and together, we will strive to bring many more laurels for our nation,” Mandhana wrote on Instagram.