November 2, 2025. This day will forever be remembered in the history of Indian cricket as India won the Women’s ODI World Cup for the first time ever, thus the day will always be remembered in the history of Indian cricket in golden letters. The captain and vice-captain of that team – Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana – are coming back to the venue after more than two months of making history but will be playing against each other in the opening match of the Women’s Premier League as Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru are set to clash.
On the eve of the tournament opener, Kaur and Mandhana both pointed to WPL as a big factor if India was to win the T20 World Cup in the UK later this year. For those not in the know, the Women’s T20 World Cup will be going on from June 12 to July 5 this year. The WPL 2026 is still going on, and the two players are the leaders of their respective teams, but their sights are already set on the bigger picture – the T20 World Cup in 2026.
“Winning the T20 World Cup would be awesome. We won the [ODI] World Cup, but there are many things in the team that we need to work on. We want to really sit back and say, ‘yes, we are the best team in the world and world’s No. 1 team’. I believe we still have a lot of things to improve on. I’m certain WPL will be the one to bridge that gap for us in the coming years.”
“Playing for India we always have a talk and say that we want to be the best in the world not for one or two tournaments but for the whole year – whatever cricket [we want to] play [we want to] be the best. I think every WPL is just a step closer to that,” said Mandhana.
Kaur: Not just one World Cup is enough, the more the better
On the other hand, Harmanpreet Kaur echoed Smriti’s opinion and said that they are not just satisfied with one World Cup but would like to get more. “We are not content with only one World Cup. We have a lot of cricket to play this year and the next two-three years, so every time we step on the field we want to do it with the best mindset and that winning mindset we have always talked about.
“It is not only us who are thinking and talking about being champions all the time, but other players also keep coming up and that is a good sign. I think that WPL has a big impact on us,” she concluded.