Harleen Deol: New Heartthrob of Social Media
The male-dominated sports, cricket, women’s cricket remain underrepresented in media coverage. But changing the world cricket scenario and the face of reporting cricket, and appearing as the upcoming face of the women’s cricket all-rounder, Indian cricketer Harleen Deol, 23, has a heartthrob of social media. Since sports in India, much like elsewhere in the world, is still male-dominated, women’s sports remain underrepresented in media coverage. But Deol changed this narrative. Her video pivotal catch in the opening match of the three-part women’s Twenty20 series against England turned out to be memorable innings for the cricket lovers.
While India lost the match, a video of the athletic Deol — jumping across the boundary ropes, throwing the ball inside, and again diving forward to complete a catch hailed by experts as one of the all-time best in women’s cricket — went viral.
Deol, who hails from Himachal Pradesh, made her T20 debut in February 2019 against England. She has played a total of 10 matches and has scored 127 runs and taken six wickets so far. However, that doesn’t deter representations of the talented cricketer in terms of her beauty. — or how it is Bollywood-approved. The Bollywood aesthetic is a huge influence in Indian popular culture so much so that the biggest domestic cricket-meets-commerce gala — the Indian Premier League (IPL) — has had an inglorious history of co-opting Bollywood-style girl-glamour catering to its boys’ club.
