"You think I should stop?"
"Not at all, just checking."
"Then why you asking?"
Two weeks ago, Harmanpreet Kaur had a look of sheer disbelief when a question about whether this would be her last T20 World Cup came up. Why was this even a question only months after she led India to ODI World Cup glory, her expression suggested. How did this even become something worth asking about when she was averaging over 48 this year in the shortest format, she might have wondered. Harmanpreet fights fire with fire and had this question been a delivery bowled to her, she would have smoked it for six.
Whether Harmanpreet will play the 2028 edition or not, right now the India captain is gearing up for her 200th T20I on Sunday, a feat no man or woman has achieved. It is remarkable because it not only speaks of a sportsperson's longevity and fitness but also covers a journey that has cut across generations, changed perceptions around the women's game, and lived up to the unforgiving expectations and standards in a cricket-crazy nation.
It was apt that her T20I debut came in the inaugural Women's T20 World Cup, and it is apt, now, that her 200th comes in the 10th edition of the tournament, which only six other players who had been active alongside her in 2009 have now made it to. She might have more ODI accolades to her name, but it is the T20 format she embraced more innately, and the format embraced her back.
Harmanpreet's always had the ability to hit the ball hard. Still brand new to international cricket, and at a time when strike rates were rarely spoken about, she seemed to default to scoring quickly. When the set batters would ask her to give them strike, she would simply whack one out of the park and surprise her seniors.
An equally telling aspect about the state of the game in 2009 was that a woman had to be self-driven to survive in international cricket. The first contracts for the Indian team were still six years away, international matches - even at World Cups - were far from being televised or streamed, fixtures were pushed to the shadows of the smaller venues whether in India or overseas, and the facilities made available to the players were as a second thought.
Harmanpreet pushed through all this with single-minded determination. Apart from her physical strength, she also showed signs of leadership early on which saw her being named deputy to Mithali Raj in 2012 and the full-time T20I captain in 2016 after India ended a wretched home T20 World Cup with just one win in the league stage. In Harmanpreet, India had a leader who believed anyone could be taken down. She always said "aggression is in my genes". Her role model was Virender Sehwag.
She was still vice-captain in ODIs when made that historic 171 not out in the semi-final against Australia in the 2017 World Cup. The format was different but the ripples of that century spread far and wide. Following a runners-up finish, the calls for a women's IPL grew louder. The Indian players now believed that they could take on and take down opposition teams who were leagues above them. At 28, Harmanpreet had become a role model overnight.
"I have seen a lot of girls discuss these things with Harman, and she came out with what was her thought process that day, what was her mindset that day," India's current bowling coach Aavishkar Salvi said on Saturday. "And then she's been sharing her experiences, not just that one innings, but many innings that she has played. And if girls go up to her and check with her what was the mindset and what should we take a leaf out of. So she's always there to suggest them and help them to go to the next level.
"Harman is a top-level athlete. I mean, she's a role model for almost all the cricketers globally. The way she has conducted herself over the years, and she's been a role model throughout. She's been a performer be it any format. And work ethics-wise, she keeps on working on the basics. She keeps on talking about the game, she shares a lot of experience with the youngsters. So that also is a dimension where she comes in. She contributes with the younger generation where she passes on a lot of information, which is very useful. At times there is a lot of information available, but coming from someone who has performed so well at the highest level, those little minor points which she shares with the players, that actually helps boost the careers of a lot of youngsters."
If that World Cup knock became part of cricketing folklore, her maiden T20 World Cup as captain sent shockwaves as well. it was under Harmanpreet's captaincy that one of the boldest calls was taken in Indian women's cricket - leaving out Raj out of the XI. It led to a bitter spat between Raj and then coach Ramesh Powar, but the former captain's exclusion had Harmanpreet's backing. It reflected that India's new captain was not going to hold back from doing what was best for the team which was that they needed players with firepower.
Her fierce competitiveness came to the fore against perennial champions Australia again and again, especially on the biggest stages. In the Commonwealth Games in 2022, she nearly saw her team through for a gold medal, but for the finishing touches that India couldn't manage after her dismissal. In the 2023 T20 World Cup semi-final, she looked set to chase down 167 but her bat got stuck in the ground and she was run out. She took her helmet off in a raging fury, just like she had in 2017, but this time India had to contend with an unhappy ending.
There was no restraint in Harmanpreet, a fitting quality for T20 cricket. If you dropped a sitter in the field or didn't run between the wickets hard (ask Deepti Sharma from the 2017 semi-final), you would be chewed out in public. If she wasn't pleased with the umpires' decisions, she would make it known - sometimes dramatically like against Bangladesh in 2023 when her outburst earned her a ban for two games.
She copped a penalty once in the WBBL too (she had become the first Indian to play in an overseas T20 league). It was perhaps a karmic connection that the names of her first two teams in overseas leagues - WBBL and Kia Super League - had the words "Thunder" be it for Sydney or Lancashire. She returned to Lancashire when she signed her maiden Hundred contract in 2021, for Manchester Originals (now Super Giants), at Old Trafford, the same venue where she will now play her 200th T20I.
"Two-hundred games is a lot," Chloe Tryon, Harmanpreet's former team-mate at Mumbai Indians in the WPL, said on Saturday. "It sounds…she makes it sound easy. It's been remarkable to watch her journey, when I was a small girl as well, just looking up to big players. And, she's been a role model for so many people around the world. To see her still playing her cricket is amazing, and leading from the front, which is really good to see. And yeah, hopefully she has 200 more. I don't know how many more she can push through, but it's great to see how the women's game has grown and how she's taken the game forward, not just cricket around the world but cricket in India. And yeah, hopefully she can continue going."
Whether Harmanpreet can add a T20 World Cup trophy to her cabinet or not, she has hardly left a stone unturned on the Indian T20 circuit, being one of the flagbearers of the WPL revolution since it started in 2023. She has lifted two of the four WPL trophies so far and the tournament now has grown to shape the future of the women's game in the country, providing the facilities that were in such short order when Harmanpreet began her career.
"Look, she's a really good captain," Tryon said. "Obviously, you got to say that, [at] MI, and how she goes about her business and how everyone listens to her. But a very fierce player. You're afraid when she's batting. The longer she bats, you get afraid. But yeah, really, really chilled and really good person off the field. So it's nice to obviously see how she is off the field. But yeah, when she's leading from the front, she's very passionate about the game, very competitive, and you want that from a captain."
Harmanpreet has been at the helm of many revolutions in Indian and women's cricket. But where or when will she finish? Ask her at your own risk.