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In what ought to have been a fabulous taking part in profession for Amol Muzumdar, he by no means received chosen in Group India, regardless of scoring 11,000 FC runs.
It’s been two days since the Indian team won the Women’s World Cup 2025, and the feeling is yet to sink in. To lose three back-to-back matches, and then to beat Australia in the semis, and then South Africa in the final.. that is some exceptional effort. And rightly so, head coach Amol Muzumdar is getting the accolades, for developing nerves of steel within the team, and for making them believe, that they could bounce back from any situation.
In the last few days, he has emerged as real life Kabir Khan, from movie ‘Chak De, India’, where Shah Rukh Khan’s own career went for a toss, but helped a withered women’s hockey team to win the World Cup. Yes, Muzumdar’s contribution is much more than living a character, but the similarities just cannot be ignored.
In a career that started along side Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli in school cricket, the 50-year-old never really got his due, when it came to India selection. When he was at his prime, the Indian cricket was ruled by fab 4, and hence there was no space. Such was his frustration that Muzumdar almost decided to quit cricket altogether, only to be helped by his father.
And after 20 years of playing domestic cricket for Mumbai, Andhra and Assam, he turned to coaching, but not before scoring 11,167 runs with 30 tons and 60 fifties. Luckily, his coaching journey brought him to the Indian women’s cricket team, where the challenges were unprecedented, unlike what he had seen at the U-19, U-23, Netherlands, and Rajasthan Royals stints.
“For the next seven hours, we cut out all the noise. We cut them out of our lives. We create our own bubble here. Seven hours, create our own bubble, and we step into it, and we finish that. And we write our own story. No more stories from the outside, we write our own story. You will write your own story tonight. Let’s stay in that bubble for the next seven hours. Let’s create history.”
Amol Muzumdar before World Cup final
25th October 2023, Amol Muzumdar take over as India coach
Since 2022, the Indian team wasn’t having the best of times of field. They had been thrown out of the World Cup, without making it to the playoffs, there were speculations of rift in the team, among the players, and decent performances were scanty. Jhulan Goswami stepped away from the game, and so did Mithali Raj, and for a very long time the team was struggling for replacements. India lost T20Is to Bangladesh, lost couple of ODI series to Australia, and it was certainly taking a toll.
After taking over, Amol Muzumdar had nothing but a collective vision to offer to this team, with not many having the belief in the unit.
Handing Out 19 Debuts
Under him, the fault lines were detected and until 2025 as many as 19 new players were tried out, or handed out debuts. There were visible chinks in bowling, batting and fielding, and the coach needed specialists for every position. Non-performance was no excuse and players like Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues were dropped from ODI side, for the same reasons.
The duo went on to play pivotal parts in the semis (Jemimah scored 127 vs AUS), and final (Shafali scored 87 & picked 2 wickets), but that push was necessary. Jemi averaged 29 in 2024, while Shafali was placed at 18; brave calls were needed, something Muzumdar’s predecessors would have shied from doing.
The Surprise Element
Muzumdar is widely considered the best batter from domestic circuit, who never got to play for India. But then veteran of the game, that he is, he certainly knows a thing or two about spotting and nurturing talent. So, when there was the easy choice of an experienced spinner and a pacer, he went with Sree Charani, who debuted in 2025, and also with Kranti Gaud, who debuted in the same year.
Not that the duo have brilliant WPL records — Charani has four wickets in two matches, and Gaud has 6 in 8 matches. So, he must have seen something in these bowlers, the X-factor, which brought up some key performances from in the World Cup 2025. The left-armer picked up 14 wickets, while Kranti picked up 9; massive contributions for India. The saner choice, or perhaps the safer choice for others would have been Arundhati Reddy in this case.
“Sir’s contribution in the last two and a half years has been amazing. A lot changed in our dressing room after his arrival. Before that, coaches were changing frequently; we didn’t know how to bring things forward. But after Sir came, everything became stable and smooth. He gets a lot of credit for building this team.”
Harmanpreet Kaur after winning World Cup
The Indian Team ‘Ka Gunda’
Once again drawing analogy from Chak De India, coach Kabir Khan tells one of the players, ‘is team ka gunda main hoon’, but Muzumdar, in a way, exercised this. After three hurting losses in the league stages, Harmanpreet Kaur, the skipper did open up on how the head coach gave a piece of his mind to his players. And surely it would have been pretty constructive, where they went on to beat New Zealand, then Australia and South Africa.
Harman admitted after ENG loss, “That day, sir was a little aggressive, in a good way. Everyone took it positively because we knew whatever he was saying came from a good place, and he was right. We all trust him completely, and his message came from the heart.
“After that, I spoke to all the players individually because I wanted to know how they were feeling. We knew what sir was expecting from us, And the way we lost that match wasn’t what the country was expecting from us. Everyone positively took that feedback, and you can see how the team played with that intent.” And all that just did work in team’s favour.
The Accolades Are Coming
If there was one player who missed out on India glory in playing days, it was Muzumdar, but through these girls, of course through the sheer hard work he has put in, he is in a way living the life that he deserved earlier. Nonetheless, for now every Indian fan is bowing down to the greatness of this man, who seems to achieved something nearly impossible.
Editor’s Pick
Amol Muzumdar, the actual life Kabir Khan, who guided India to maiden Girls’s World Cup title
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