Indian skipper Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur avoided customary handshake after India’s series win over Zimbabwe on Wednesday. On October 28, the Women in Blue recorded a 3-0 series sweep over Zimbabwe with
an emphatic eight-wicket win in Vadodara. However, as the reigning World Champions solidified their dominance in international cricket, a brief moment between the current skipper and former skipper became a talking point among fans.
In visuals doing rounds on social media, as Harmanpreet moved towards Mandhana, the latter appeared to be facing another direction. While it might have gone unnoticed for a moment, social media experts were quick to notice the gap, leaving viewers wondering whether the fleeting interaction meant anything.
There was no handshake between Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur. Is everything alright??
https://t.co/lElZfqdj06— cheekufied (@kohliiix18) October 29, 2026
Notably, Mandhana has just taken over captaincy from Kaur, and since then rumours of rift between the senior players in the team have been doing rounds on social media. However, there is no clear evidence to suggest that it reflected tension between the two players, though such moments can stand against team India’s dominant performance in the series, especially during a leadership transition.
Did captaincy change lead to tensions between Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur?
As stated, the speculation about their relationship began earlier this month following the captaincy transition and the reports that the entire scene had created unease within the Indian dressing room. As per an earlier report published in India Today, a team source had claimed that Mandhana and Kaur had not been seeing eye to eye for some time, and captaincy was at the centre of the differences.
The reports had already raised questions about how the leadership transition would affect the team, particularly with Kaur continuing as a senior player and playing under Mandhana’s captaincy. It was followed by the former captain breaking down following her unbeaten 91 off 41 against Zimbabwe in the third T20I on October 21, 2026, implying that the transition had affected her a lot.
