Mithali’s succession plan: Mandhana for the long formats, Shafali for the T20 job

India’s women are world champions, and the conversation has already turned to who leads them next. Mithali Raj has put names to it. The former India captain believes Smriti Mandhana should have been handed the reins two or three years ago, and thinks the sensible move now is to give her the one-day and Test sides while handing the Twenty20 captaincy to Shafali Verma. It is a pointed take, and it lands at a moment when the question feels live rather than hypothetical.

Harmanpreet Kaur is 37 and coming off the biggest result of her career, the 50-over World Cup title India won at home in November 2025. That victory, the country’s first in the format, buys her time and goodwill. It does not settle what happens next, and Mithali’s argument is that India should be planning for the handover now rather than waiting until it is forced.

Mithali’s case for splitting the job

The heart of Mithali’s argument is that no single player should carry all three formats through the next cycle. She would give Mandhana the ODI and Test captaincy, roles that suit a senior batter who has been part of the leadership group for years. The T20 side, she suggests, should go to someone younger, and Shafali is the name she keeps coming back to for that job.

There is logic to the split beyond simply spreading the load. India lifted the ODI World Cup under Harmanpreet but have never won a global title in the shortest format, a gap that stretches back through a run of near misses. A fresh voice for the T20 team, tied to a clear plan through to the next T20 World Cup, is an easier sell than asking one captain to fix everything at once.

Why Shafali fits the T20 brief

Shafali is a T20 cricketer to her core, an opener who plays the format at its natural tempo. She has led before too, captaining India to the inaugural Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup title in 2023, so the idea of her running a side is not new. Her stock has rarely been higher after the ODI World Cup final, where she top-scored with 87 and then chipped in with the ball as South Africa’s chase came apart. A player who delivers on the biggest day tends to earn the benefit of the doubt when leadership comes up.

Handing her the T20 team would be a bet on the future rather than a reward for a single innings, but the timing is not accidental. If India want a captain who can grow into the role across a couple of seasons, starting that now makes more sense than starting it late.

The deeper problem Mithali points to

The most telling part of her assessment is not about any one name. Mithali noted that India’s leadership has leaned on Harmanpreet and Mandhana for years without a third option emerging behind them. That is a selection and planning issue as much as a captaincy one, and it is the sort of gap that only shows up when a long-serving captain finally steps away.

A natural checkpoint is coming. The Asian Games in Japan later this year could be the point at which the selectors begin to shift, and whatever they decide there will shape the build-up to the next set of world events. Mithali has offered a blueprint. Whether the selectors follow it or draw up their own, the case for thinking about it now, with a World Cup already won, is hard to argue with.

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