Harmanpreet Kaur reveals why she handed World Cup trophy to Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami

India players honoured legends after winning the World Cup. (Photo: X)

India made history when Harmanpreet Kaur-led team defeated South Africa by 52 runs in the summit match at the Dr. DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai to win the team's first Women's World Cup on November 2. The crowd erupted in wild excitement as soon as the Indian captain took the last catch off Deepti Sharma's bowling to send back Nadine de Klerk.

As the Indian women's team lifted the trophy, they didn't forget to express gratitude to their predecessors for their tireless efforts. Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, and Anjum Chopra received the trophy from Harmanpreet's team as a token of appreciation for their hard work over the years.

Mithali and Jhulan, who were on commentary duties at the DY Patil Stadium, were involved in India's World Cup near-misses in 2005 and 2017.

Harmanpreet has now spoken out about it, stating that the team as a whole simply wanted to pay tribute to those who came before them and persevered in the face of adversity.

“The last time, back in 2022, when we returned after the World Cup, all of us were really sad. We knew that it was the last World Cup for Jhulan di and Mithali di. Smriti and I were sitting and talking, we were sad that we couldn’t deliver it for them,” she said on the ICC Review.

“But we had decided that whenever we do it in the future, we will make sure that they would be in the stadium. We really want to capture that moment with them. Not only them, Diana (Edulji) ma’am was continuously messaging. Shubhangi (Kulkarni) ma’am, Sudha (Shah) ma’am, who was our coach when I made my debut," she added.

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Harmanpreet Kaur, only the third Indian captain after Kapil Dev (1983) and MS Dhoni (2011) to lift an ODI World Cup, opened up on her heartfelt gesture of sharing the moment with Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami and Anjum Chopra.

“Everybody was there. To share this moment with them was something really special to us. And whenever we were dreaming and visualising, they were actually with us. We didn’t think of this moment without them," said Harmanpreet.

In the Women's World Cup final, Deepti Sharma's five wickets helped India defeat South Africa by 52 runs. With two wickets and an 87-run knock, Shafali Verma’s all-around performance also contributed to India's victory.