‘Deepika could portray me well’, says all-rounder Harmanpreet
Before the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2017, held in England in July, Harmanpreet Kaur had to go about introducing herself as a cricketer. She also had to explain that the Indian women’s cricket team plays a good game, much like our men in blue. Cut to the present. The 28-year-old all-rounder from Moga, Punjab, says that she gets mobbed wherever she goes. July 23, the day the World Cup final was held at Lord’s, has changed everything for Indian women’s cricket.
“The appreciation took time to arrive,” says Harmanpreet, who scored 171 in the semifinal against Australia. “But the love we’re getting now is overwhelming.” India lost the final match, but the women came back winners.
“Imagine what the reaction would’ve been had we won the World Cup!” says the middleorder batsman-cum-offspinner in one breath. Harmanpreet will now be in Mumbai for a while, to take part in TV shows, including a popular game show hosted by Amitabh Bachchan. “I’m excited to meet him. Though I don’t know if I’d be able to answer his questions,” she jokes. This soft-spoken woman, thrilled like any young person who’s about to meet a pop culture icon, is a far cry from the player whose on-field aggression drove the team.
Given Bollywood’s current obsession with sport-based films and the reports of producers keen on making women cricketers’ biopics, we ask Harmanpreet who she thinks would be right to play her on-screen. “Deepika Padukone,” is her quick reply. “Deepika is a good actor. She’d be the right choice [for the biopic], she’d able portray me well on-screen,” says Harmanpreet. Among male leads, she likes Ranveer Singh and Varun Dhawan.
Besides being a movie buff, Harmanpreet is keen on football and video games — quite a bit of her spare time is spent on these. And she loves being with friends and family, of course. Amid all this and preparations for the next World Cup — “Right now, we’re focused on winning the next World Cup,” she says — the thought of a biopic is interesting, but it can wait. She adds, “There’s so much more that I need to achieve.”
People now come up to me all the time. They want to meet me in person to congratulate [me] and take selfies. HARMANPREET KAUR, CRICKET PLAYER