Indian women's cricket has been on the rise after their splendid run in the ICC World Cup 2017 in England and Wales. However, their ODI and T20I skipper, Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur, respectively, were caught in a spot of bother following India's semifinal exit in the ICC World Twenty20 last year.
There was a huge uproar as Mithali was overlooked for the knockouts (allegedly due to her unimpressive strike-rate) and that led to India's exit from the ICC event; losing to eventual runners-up England. However, in an exclusive interaction with media, Harmanpreet revealed she contemplated retiring from the game as a result of the controversies following the last edition of the World Twenty20.
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"I had almost made up my mind to let my parents know that I wanted to take a break. I don't want to hold on to a spot in the Indian team just because I am a senior player. I wanted to get away from cricket. Whatever happened around the team before that was immensely draining for me. Some of the things said were so far from reality that I felt, 'I need to step away from this madness for a while.' I'm here to play cricket. If people want to drag me into unnecessary things, drag the team into unnecessary things, I have to stop trying to reason with them."
On being asked how she copped up and moved ahead after the controversy, she said,
"If certain situations are not meant to get better, you cannot fix them, no matter how many apologies you offer. The wiser thing to do is just step away from all that mess and calm yourself, focus on your mental health, your cricket, come back strong and do what you love and what has given your money, recognition, etc."