Harmanpreet reveals how Amol Muzumdar’s dressing-room blast reignited World Cup run: 'Can’t make same mistakes again'

India began their World Cup campaign at home last month with wins over Sri Lanka and Pakistan, but soon hit a rough patch, suffering defeats to South Africa, Australia and England, all of whom went on to reach the semifinals, while the hosts slipped out of the top three.

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After India’s 52-run win over South Africa in the final, captain Harmanpreet Kaur opened up about Muzumdar’s dressing-room talk and how his words fired up the team, who went on to win every remaining match and lift the World Cup.

“The last month has been very interesting. It’s very rare that things don’t go according to your plan, and yet you stay so positive. We were really looking for this cup — that was something special in our group. Not a single player said, ‘What will we do now?,” Harmanpreet said.

“Everybody just thought, “It’s okay.” After losing the England match, we were really heartbroken. We were about to win that match, but we collapsed. We had seen this in the past. That day, (Amol Muzumdar) Sir also said, ‘You can’t make the same mistakes again and again. You have to cross that line’. After that day, a lot changed for us. Every time, we cannot go on repeating the same things. We had to come with a strong mind. That night changed a lot for us. It had an impact on everyone,” she added.

After losing to England, India beat the reigning T20 champions, New Zealand, in a virtual quarter-final, before pulling off a shocking win against seven-time winners Australia in the semifinals. In the final, all-round brilliance from Deepti Sharma and Shafali Verma helped India lift their maiden World Cup trophy.

“We have been talking about this for many years – we’ve been playing good cricket, but we had to win one big tournament. (But) without that, we couldn’t talk about change,” Harmanpreet said.

“At the end of the day, fans and the audience want to see their favourite team win. It’s not that we weren’t playing good cricket, but we were waiting badly for this moment, and today we got a chance to live it. I don’t know how to express it, but I’m so happy and so proud of this team. I’m just trying to express what I’m feeling. I am numb. I am not able to understand. He (a journalist) asked two questions; I answered only one,” she added.

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