UPDATE: Smriti Mandhana named India women's captain; Harmanpreet Kaur stays in the squad as a player

On Tuesday, 6 October 2026, the Board of Control for Cricket in India appointed Smriti Mandhana captain of the Indian women's cricket team. The BCCI release says she will be the "full-time white-ball captain from now on", which means ODIs and T20Is. That release does not mention Test captaincy. This note is NP NOW. The appointment, the squads and Harmanpreet Kaur's decision to step down are verified as three BCCI releases of 6 October give them, and as Hindustan Times, PTI, Sportstar, The Times of India and The Hindu report them. This note does not call Mandhana the Test captain.

Earlier the same day, Harmanpreet Kaur stepped down as captain across all formats. She has not retired. She was not sacked. She is named in both the T20I squad and the ODI squad for the home series against Zimbabwe. In her letter to the BCCI she said: "I would like to continue representing the Indian Women's Cricket Team as a player." BCCI president Mithun Manhas said: "I am pleased that she will continue to represent India as a player."

Mandhana has led India in 18 T20Is and four ODIs. She has been in the team since 2013. For the Zimbabwe series the BCCI named Shafali Verma vice-captain of the T20I squad only. Shafali is in the ODI squad as a player. Deepti Sharma is the ODI vice-captain. Hindustan Times, PTI via NDTV Sports, and Sportstar report those roles with the squad list.

Sportstar and News18 headlines describe the appointment as covering all formats. This note follows the BCCI release. Tests are not mentioned there, so Mandhana is the white-ball captain in this account. The five Tests inside the 211-match record below are matches Harmanpreet captained. They are not a Test appointment for Mandhana.

As captain, Harmanpreet led India in 211 matches: five Tests, 51 ODIs and 155 T20Is, according to PTI and Sportstar. Under her, India won a first ODI World Cup in 2025 and a second straight Asian Games gold in 2026, as PTI, The Times of India and the BCCI report. The BCCI says her last game as captain was the Asian Games final, a 147-run win over Sri Lanka in Nagoya. The BCCI timeline is this: she first led India as a stand-in in the 2012 T20 Asia Cup final, became the regular T20I captain in 2016, and took the ODI and Test captaincy in 2022. An earlier PTI account had placed all-format captaincy in 2023. This note uses the BCCI's 2022 wording for the ODI and Test roles, and it drops that 2023 row.

The home series against Zimbabwe is Mandhana's first series as full-time captain, on the BCCI schedule. Three T20Is are in Raipur on 16, 18 and 20 October, at 7 PM IST. Three ODIs are in Vadodara on 23, 25 and 28 October, at 2 PM IST.

A check at about 4:07 pm IST on 7 October found the BCCI release unchanged: white-ball captain, and no Test note. The Indian Express, The Hindu quoting PTI, NDTV and Sky Sports were consistent with that account. Sky Sports is named in the check. This page does not add a Sky Sports link, because the source list used here does not include one. The note was posted at 4:08 pm IST. An earlier pass on the same releases was recorded at about 8:06 am IST.

Harmanpreet remains a player in both squads. She told the BCCI she wants to keep playing, and the president said he was pleased she will continue. Mandhana is the full-time white-ball captain on the BCCI's words. This note does not describe Harmanpreet as retired or removed, and it does not call Mandhana the Test captain.