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Harmanpreet kaur conferred Padma shri award after winning ICC world cup tournament. She became the first women captain to win an ICC world cup. This award has been received by 40 cricketers before Harmanpreet Kaur.
Let’s understand the applicability of all the awards:
Padma awards are one of the highest civilian awards of the country. There are three awards categorized namely Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhusan and Padma Shri. These awards are given in different fields of activities like art, public affair, science and engineering, social work, sports etc.
Padma Vibhushan: is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service.
Padma Bhushan: is awarded for distinguished service of high order and
Padma Shri: is awarded for distinguished services in any field.
These awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.
Let’s go through the cricket journey of Hramanpreet Kaur.
Harmanpreet Kaur Bhullar is an Indian cricketer who plays as an all-rounder and captains the Indian women’s national team.
Harmanpreet Kaur was born on 8th March 1989 in Moga, Punjab, to Harmandar Singh Bhullar and Satwinder Kaur. Her Father was a former sportsman, but later he worked as a clerk at local judicial court. His passion for the cricket passed on to Harmanpreet Kaur. He used to send the bowlers on a leather hunt since the gully cricket days in Moga, Punjab.
Harmanpreet Kaur captained the Indian team that won the 2025 Women’s Cricket World Cup, the Women’s Asia Cup in 2012, 2016 and 2022, and the gold medal in the 2022 Asian Games.
Under her captaincy, the Indian women’s team achieved its first bilateral Women’s One Day International (WODI) away series win against England since 1999 in 2022, the first-ever Test victory over Australia in 2023, and the first Women’s Twenty20 International (WT20I) series win against England in 2025.
She was also a member of the Indian team that won the silver medal in the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Debut:
Harmanpreet Kaur has first played her ODI match back in the year 2009 against Pakistan. She has played her first Test match against England in the year 2014 and her first T20 in the year 2009 against England.
Batting Career Stats Summary of Harmanpreet Kaur Bhullar:
Harmanpreet Kaur played 161 matches in ODI and has scored 4409 runs. While in T20, she played 187 matches and has scored 3784 runs.
Struggle days of Hramanpreet Kaur Bhullar:
Harmanpreet Kaur comes from a middle class family. She grew up in a small town with limited sports facilities specially for girls. His father was her first coach and he used to practice her in open grounds with no proper equipment and pitch.
She faced social pressure and skepticism about whether cricket was a real career for a woman. In those days women’s cricket had little support there was no guaranteed income from women’s cricket so choosing cricket as a career was a risky and unconventional.
For several years she remained in and out of the team. She has started as a medium pace all-rounder, she came up through the ranks, sooner than she’d hoped, on the back of consistent performances. Even before she could realise, she found herself in India’s 2009 World T20 squad.
But the real struggle started only after she got into the side. As an aspiring lead bowler, she only had to endure one frustrating day in the field after another thanks to the presence of stalwart like Jhulan Goswami. That’s when she put all her energies into developing her batting a notch above others and soon became a well-versed batter in crisis situations.
Turning Point:
After all the prolonged struggle, she scored 171 runs in women’s world cup semifinal against Australia in the 2017. This has changed her cricketing career and given all the confidence and respect she always wanted for.
Congratulations to Indian women’s Captain Harmanpreet Kaur for Padma Shri award and all the very best for her future.
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