On March 10, 2024, Delhi Capitals (DC) secured the narrowest of wins over Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Women’s Premier League (WPL).
Jess Jonassen defended two off the last ball against Richa Ghosh, who had hit the previous delivery for a six, to keep RCB one run behind their first innings score of 181/5.
As the celebrations were only warming up, the to-be Player of the Match, Jemimah Rodrigues, walked up to her captain, Meg Lanning, and asked her, ‘Weren’t you nervous?’
“She was like, Jemi, to be honest, I was nervous,” Rodrigues told News18 in a select media interaction before the 2026 season of the WPL. “And I was like, wait, it didn’t even show on your face! And she was like, ‘I just realised if as a captain, if I start panicking there, my team is going to panic. But if I stay calm, my team is going to stay calm.’ I really loved that. That was one big learning for me because I was right there, I lived that moment.”
Less than two years on from that moment, Rodrigues has been promoted to the franchise’s captaincy after they didn’t retain Lanning and then failed to get her back in the mega auction last year. The 25-year-old has huge responsibilities on her shoulders, not just because Lanning has perhaps the greatest captaincy boots in women’s cricket, but also because even under the Australian, DC saw three consecutive runners-up finishes.
“We’ve been the best team in the tournament throughout the last 3 years,” she said. “Yeah, things didn’t go well in the finals of all 3 years but you know, the thing about time is it changes and things just fall into place. We saw it happen with us in the World Cup. Till now, everyone used to call us chokers, the Indian women’s cricket team, but things changed, and I don’t think we changed anything much. We just kept working hard and kept believing. And that’s what DC has also done consistently while we keep believing that our time is now.”
It’s good, then, that she is also carrying captaincy lessons from both her India leaders, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana, who’d be leading the Mumbai Indians and RCB, respectively.
“I have learned that everyone has a different style of captaincy, and I think my biggest learning would be to find my own style. But at the same time, I get to learn so much like Harry di – she is more of the aggressive captain. She wants to be involved in everything that is happening, and she wants to lead from the front. Especially on the big stage when the moment matters the most, I think Harry Di is always the one, like, I want to go there and perform and make sure my team wins,” she said.
“And then from Smriti, I have learned how to stay calm. She is very tactical in how she plans and how she goes about her decisions. She is a very smart cricketer. So she has the plans in place, but at the same time, she is very calm, and she understands her bowlers well, and I think the relationship the bowlers have with her is a very big learning and a very important thing as a captain to have,” Rodrigues added.
DC were adamant that Rodrigues was the right player to lead the team in its fourth year, ahead of Lanning, Laura Wolvaardt, Marizanne Kapp, and Shafali Verma. A true franchise player who has been with it since it was conceived, the time seems right for her to carve a learned yet separate legacy at DC.