4 min readMumbaiDec 29, 2025 12:54 PM IST
The Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur doing bhangra as she lifted the Women’s T20 World Cup trophy the kind of clip that gets shared by cricket boards and quote-tweeted by Prime Ministers. However, the moment was the result of a threat. On The Great Indian Kapil Show this week, Jemimah Rodrigues revealed that Smriti Mandhana had issued Harmanpreet an ultimatum moments before the presentation ceremony: do bhangra while lifting the trophy, or I’m never speaking to you again. Smriti, however, skipped participation in the show as her teammates spoke fondly about her.
Harmanpreet, according to Jemimah, doesn’t usually take instructions from juniors. “Harry Di doesn’t listen to us anyway,” she said. But Smriti, apparently, operates on a different clearance level. The captain complied. During The Great Indian Kapil Show Season 4episode, Jemimah Rodrigues revealed that it was Smriti Mandhana who made Harmanpreet do the dance. The team also recalled how they spent the night after winning the World Cup.
When Kapil Sharma lauded Harmanpreet for her bhangra moment, she said, “Jemimah and Harleen had planned it.” Jemimah quickly added, “No, it was actually Smriti. Harry Di doesn’t listen to us anyway. First, she said no, then Smriti said, ‘If you didn’t do bhangra while lifting the trophy, I’ll never talk to you again in life’.”
Kapil later asked the team how they celebrated the night they won, and they shared, “The night we won, we kept dancing, didn’t feel like sleeping. We had a celebratory dinner, after which we continued celebrating on the ground until 3:30 am. However, they had to switch off the stadium lights, so we had to leave. We were together till 7:30 am, and we all saw the sunrise together for the first time.”
Later, Kapil asked who in the team is a party animal, and the majority chose Renuka. Jemimah also added, “When she gets high, she always speaks in English.”
The Indian Women’s Cricket Team won the World Cup on 2nd November 2025. After the World Cup win, Smriti Mandhana was supposed to get married to singer Palak Muchhal’s brother, Palaash. However, due to Smriti’s father suffering a heart attack, the wedding was initially postponed, and later it was called off. In a statement, she had confirmed that the wedding had been called off but refused to divulge the reason. “Over the past few weeks there has been plenty of speculation around my life and I feel it is important for me to speak out at this time. I am a very private person and I would like to keep it that way but I need to clarify that the wedding is called off. I would like to close this matter here and implore all of you to do the same. I request you to please respect the privacy of both families at this time and allow us the space to process and move on at our own pace.”
