Harleen Deol

Some Lesser Known Facts About Harleen Deol

• Harleen Deol is an Indian woman cricketer who represents the Women Indian Team across shorter formats of the game. She is a right-handed batswoman who can bowl leg-spin when required. She plays for Himachal Pradesh in domestic cricket. 

• She started playing gully cricket at the age of eight with her brother and neighbourhood boys. Her neighbours then start complaining with her parents regarding Harleen playing with the boys. But she got full support from her mother, who felt privileged that her daughter is playing a sport.

• Then she gave a trial for the Chandigarh team, where she got selected. There she had her first match against Mohali, where she met RP Singh the coach of their team who then told her to come to Punjab as she is been selected for the state team.

  

• Her transition from a lower-order batsman to an opener started during a match against Hyderabad where her team lost quick four wickets for 22 runs and when she came, she took the score to a hundred. Impressed by her batting her coach praised and told her that her batting is better than the other top-order batsman. Also, he told her to open the innings next time. Her coach’s move paid off, and Harleen scored 49 runs in the very next match. Although she lost the match but won the heart of many critics.

• At the age of 13, she went to Himachal Pradesh to play professional cricket as her father’s posting was in Dharamshala. There she saw the girl’s academy, after which she joined it.

• Apart from cricket, she is also good at football, hockey and basketball.

• She is the second women’s cricketer from Chandigarh to play for India after Taniya Bhatia. Also, she is the second women’s cricketer from HPCA to play for India after Sushma Verma.

  

• She was an academic bright student in her school. Her marks in tenth and twelfth are more than eighty per cent.

• Remembering her hard work and dedication towards the game, her academy coach Pawan Sen recalls that,
  

  Like any young cricketer, Harleen had her fears of diving and sliding to stop the ball. We trained the HPCA Academy trainees to slide on wet pitch covers to end the fear of sliding and diving on the ground. It helped her. Along with her bowling and batting. She has evolved to be a very good fielder and to earn praise from the cricketing world shows her hard work.”

• While their conditioning coach Veena Pandey says that
  

She has been passionate about fitness and her Yo-Yo test score would always be above 15 when she trained at the academy. It has improved further and it is heartening to watch.”

• She first came into the limelight of the critics during the second edition of the Women’s T20 Challenge when she put together a splendid partnership of 119 runs with Samriti Mandhana for the trailblazers.

  

• She was selected in the Punjab team at the young age of 10 years in the sub-junior tournament. There was a requirement for a leg spinner. Since Harleen occasionally bowls leg-spin as a variation, her coach told her to shift to as a leg spinner, for which she agreed.

• She revealed in an interview that
  

  When one of my uncles used to question my playing by saying that as a hobby it’s fine but focus on my studies and I always wanted to prove myself to them. And now they are the same person who listens to my interviews and calls me to say well-done beta we are proud of you.

• She considers getting the debut cap for India as the best moment in her life. She also dreams of holding a World Cup in her hand.