A dramatic moment in the ongoing Women’s Premier League 2026 (WPL 2026) quickly turned into one of the most powerful comeback stories of the season, with Harleen Deol showing what mental strength and confidence looks like at the highest level.
On January 14, UP Warriors coach Abhishek Nair took a bold and controversial decision by retiring Harleen Deol during the WPL 2026 match against Delhi Capitals. At that time, she was scoring 47 runs off 36 balls at a strike rate of over 130.
Harleen Deol’s powerful WPL 2026 comeback after Abhishek Nair’s bold call
But Nair and the team management felt that the situation demanded more firepower in the final overs. The decision surprised many, as retiring a batsman is still rare in top-level cricket and can easily shatter a player’s confidence. However, the very next day, Harleen responded in the strongest possible way.
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On January 15, the Indian batsman played a brilliant match-winning innings against Mumbai Indians in UP Warriors’ next WPL 2026 clash. Harleen scored 64 runs off just 39 balls at an impressive strike rate of over 164. With the help of her innings, UP Warriors defeated Mumbai Indians by seven wickets to register their first win in the ongoing Women’s Premier League 2026.
Instead of letting the previous day’s decision affect her, Harleen played openly and smartly. She timed the ball beautifully, chose boundary options well and looked in complete control. The knock also marked a surprising turnaround for the Indian star.
Harleen had struggled in the first two matches of the season, but the Delhi Capitals match, despite his retirement, helped him understand his game better.
Retire-out move gave me a lot of confidence: Harleen Deol
Harleen Deol said in the post-match presentation, “Nothing is different [about my approach]. I just got some boundary balls so that I could convert them into boundaries. Sometimes it’s just your day – the ball just happens to hit where you plan to hit it. That was it for me.”
Harleen Deol said, “Yesterday also I was batting well, but as you saw today, Chloe [Tryon] The scenario may change. For me, I just took it this way: Chloe is someone who can hit big. [Yesterday, that decision] Probably didn’t go our way. There is no point in just insisting on that point.
To be honest, I got a lot of confidence yesterday because the first two games did not go my way. I moved forward and realized a few things. I was just trying to overheat. This wicket is not the type that will reward overheating; Scoring requires more time.”
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This was not a spontaneous decision: Abhishek Nair
Meanwhile, Abhishek Nair later revealed that the decision to retire Harleen Deol against Delhi was not sudden or emotional. The coach shared that the planning had started around the 12th over of the innings. At that time, the team sent a message to Meg Lanning while she and Harleen Deol were batting, and the management started discussing when would be the right time to bring in the power hitters.
After the intermission, Meg and Harleen tried to increase the scoring rate. By then, Harleen had already been informed that if the runs did not come quickly by the 16th or 17th over, the team could retire him, so it was not a shocking decision for him and the team. He said that from the outside it may seem sudden and confusing, but inside the team the plan had been in the works for a long time.
“It was not a very spontaneous decision. This communication started much earlier,” Nair told the media. [we asked her to retire out]. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Later, the entire team felt that it was the right decision.
“So, there wasn’t much conversation after that because the buildup was already there. She knew what the team was doing. After that, there was really nothing. Because there was nothing wrong, or nothing she expected that was going to happen. She was told it was a possibility if we got there.”
