India's World Cup-winning captain and women's team stalwart Harmanpreet Kaur has announced her decision to step down from her role on Tuesday, October 6. Harmanpreet's decision comes after she guided India to the gold medal at the Asian Games 2026, thus preserving her legacy as one of India's greatest women's team captains.

Harmanpreet announced the decision via Instagram with a lengthy post, where she confirmed that she will continue to remain a part of the team and that she wanted to make the call to help the side get better. The call means that Harmanpreet will step down from the captaincy role in all formats of the game for India.

The 37-year-old initially took over the role on a temporary basis in 2012 when she helped India win the Women's T20I Asia Cup. She went on to take over as the full-time captain in 2016 and ushered in an era of greatness for the Indian team.

At 37, Harmanpreet’s tenure as India captain has come to an end after she led the side across five Tests, 51 ODIs and 155 T20Is. The captaincy change followed a meeting in Guwahati involving Harmanpreet, vice-captain Smriti Mandhana and head coach Amol Muzumdar with BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia, where the team’s future plans were discussed. Early reports on Tuesday suggested that the top brass was ready to stick with Harmanpreet for now and take a call in the future.

It is believed that Mandhana is in line to replace Harmanpreet as the new captain of the team across all three formats. The decision on the new captain is expected to be made soon as Zimbabwe will come to India for a tour, starting on October 16.

Following India's comprehensive win in the Asia Cup, many of the pundits believed that it was time for a change at the top.

In her statement, Harmanpreet said it wasn't an easy decision for her to make but believes that it was the right time for a change.