Smriti Mandhana becomes the fourth Indian Women's cricketer to complete 2500 ODI runs

India cricketer Smriti Mandhana reached the milestone of 2500 ODI runs during the Women in Blue's 2022 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup fixture against arch-rivals Pakistan on Sunday.

A vital cog in the Indian batting line-up, the prolific 25-year-old batter became only the fourth Indian women's player to cross the 2500-run mark in the 50-over format after Mithali Raj, Anjum Chopra and Harmanpreet Kaur.

She lived up to expectations by providing a cracking start to India's World Cup campaign by making a half-century against Bismah Maroof's women. The southpaw's form will be crucial for India at the top of the order throughout the tournament.

Team India will be looking to go break the jinx and go all the way at the 2022 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup

After their runner-up finish in 2005, Team India came close to winning the title once again during the previous edition of the tournament in 2017 where they narrowly missed out and lost the final to hosts England by just nine runs at Lord's.

The World Cup final jinx continued in the T20 format as well, when they lost the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup title match to hosts Australia by 85 runs in Melbourne. This time though, the team, led by Mithali Raj, looks incredibly strong across all departments and are one of the top contenders for the title.

With a perfect mix of young and experienced players, the team looks balanced. While captain Mithali Raj, who is playing a record sixth World Cup, is 39 years old, swashbuckling opener Shafali Verma and wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh, who are playing their first ever World Cup, are just 18.

The team is brimming with confidence and will be fighting it hard to bring home that elusive crown in what could possibly be the last World Cup for veterans Raj and Jhulan Goswami.

The twelfth edition of the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup, which was supposed to be held in February-March 2021, had to be postponed by a year due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Post their opening fixture against Pakistan, the team will play New Zealand, West Indies, England, Australia, Bangladesh and South Africa in the group stage with the top four out of the eight participating nations advancing to the semi-finals. The final is scheduled to be played on Sunday, April 3rd at Christchurch's Hagley Oval.