Smriti Mandhana Should Have Been India Captain Years Ago, Says Mithali Raj

Former India captain, Mithali Raj, believes Smriti Mandhana should have taken over the India captaincy’s role from Harmanpreet two-three years back. She said, it is still not too late for her to to take charge of the ODI and Test formats. Her comments come after Mandhana expressed her keen interest in leading the side if asked.

Speaking to the PTI, Mithali Raj said, “I at least thought Smriti would lead the 50-over format two-three years back.” She further quipped, “But now also, with the vast experience that she has, at least the ODI and Test format (captaincy) should be given to her and perhaps the T20 to someone younger.

I think Shafali (Varma). Her format is T20s. And she has led the Under-19 World Cup Side to a title win in 2023. Why not Shafali? Jemi too of course, yes. She has led in the WPL. But I do believe that whoever they pick, they need to give them some time to settle. Because all of us got time to settle into our role as a leader.”

Although, Raj was very clear in her views that team India has to move on from Harmanpreet Kaur, she explained her reason does not stem from the fact that India failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the T20 World Cup for second time in a row. “Yes, we did not qualify for the semi-finals twice in two years now but that cannot be the only reason or criteria to come to the conclusion that you need to change the leader,” said Raj.

“Because I believe that there are few boxes that one needs to actually see if the player ticks those boxes.” According to Raj, Harmanpreet’s fitness level was letting her down. “One is, of course, the fitness, I feel is very important,” she said. “Harman in the last two-three years, you see the physio quite often on the ground, every game she is playing. There were a few games where she was unavailable. So, you obviously would want your captain to be fit and available for all games. And unfortunately, all of age, so she’s not the fittest.

If you see Harman’s form in the three World Cups, the T20 World Cup in Dubai in 2024, the ODI World in 2025 and the recently concluded T20 World Cup in 2026, we have seen a pattern. She gets through 15-20 runs but it always takes her three to four games to get her 50 in the World Cup.

And the third factor is that does she fit into the scheme of things in the next cycle of your one-day World Cup or a T20 World Cup? So, I think whoever is in the position to take this decision has to factor these things.”

Mithali Raj also believe that the selectors have missed the opportunity to groom new leaders beyond the national setup and that is indicative of a lack of proper roadmap. He said, “So far, the leadership group for the longest time has been these two. But we have never had a third person who we can think that, okay, this person can lead in their absence. And sadly, that’s where we are at the moment.”

Raj concluded, “we dont have a roadmap. We don’t think about two years down the line, where do you see Indian team? We are only thinking about series to series. We dont have a long-term plan.”