Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur (ICC Photo) Indian women’s team captain Harmanpreet Kaur was seen breaking into a bhangra celebration as she lifted the Women’s T20 World Cup trophy – a moment that quickly went viral and drew widespread admiration. However, the jubilant scene had a light story behind it. In a recent episode of The Great Indian Kapil Show co-hosted by Kapil Sharma, batsman Jemimah Rodrigues revealed that Harmanpreet’s dance was the result of a playful ultimatum from teammate Smriti Mandhan just moments before the trophy presentation.Although Smriti was not present on the show, her teammates shared anecdotes highlighting her influence in the team.
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Jemimah explained that Harmanpreet rarely takes instructions from younger players. “Harry Di isn’t listening to us anyway,” she said jokingly. However, Smriti seems to have a special place with the captain, prompting Harmanpreet to grant her request. During season 4 of the show, Jemimah confirmed that it was Smriti who urged Harmanpreet to perform bhangra and the players also opened up about how the team celebrated their World Cup triumph.When Kapil praised Harmanpreet for her spontaneous dance during the trophy presentation, the skipper replied, “Jemimah and Harleen planned it.” Jemimah quickly clarified the story and said, “No, it was actually Smriti. Harry Di doesn’t listen to us anyway. She was reluctant at first, but then Smriti said, ‘If you don’t do the bhangra while lifting the trophy, I will never interact with you again in my life.’Kapil later asked the team about the post-title celebrations and the players described a night full of joy and excitement. “After we triumphed, we couldn’t contain our excitement and kept dancing and it was almost impossible to think about sleeping. We had a celebratory dinner and then we continued to celebrate on the field until 3:30 in the morning. However, the lights in the stadium were turned off, which forced us to leave, but we stayed together until sunrise, experiencing it for the very first time with others.”The conversation then turned playful when Kapil asked who among them was the biggest party lover, with most of the team pointing to Renuka. Jemimah added with a laugh, “Whenever she’s in the mood, she only speaks English.”
