Smriti Mandhana

Smriti Shriniwas Mandhana is a professional Indian cricketer who plays for the Indian women's national team, was born on July 18 1996 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. She is a left-handed opening batswoman who can also ball part-time right-arm medium pace as well. In June 2018, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named her as the Best Women's International Cricketer of the year. She also received the honourable 'Arjuna Award’ in 2019.

Smriti Mandhana Background

At the age of two, she along with her family moved to Madhavnagar, Sangli in Maharashtra, where she completed her schooling. Both her father and brother, Shravan, played cricket for Sangli at the district-level which inspired her to take up cricket after watching her brother play at the different Maharashtra state Under-16s tournaments. At the age of nine, she was also selected for Maharashtra's Under-15 team. At eleven, she was a part of the Maharashtra Under-19s team

Mandhana's family is closely involved in her cricketing activities and supported her well which took her to such a level. Her father Shrinivas, a chemical distributor, takes care of her cricket program while her mother Smita is in charge of her diet, clothing, and other organisation aspects. Her brother Shravan bowls to her in the nets occasionally.

Her first major breakthrough came in October 2013 when she became the first Indian woman to achieve a double-hundred in a one-day game. In a game against Gujarat where she was playing for Maharashtra, she scored an unbeaten 224 off just 150 balls in the West Zone Under-19 Tournament, at the Alembic Cricket Ground in Vadodara.

Smriti Mandhana's Debut

After making her One Day Internationals debut in 2013 in a match against Bangladesh on April 10, 2013, Mandhana made her Test debut in August 2014 against England at Wormsley Park. She helped her team win the match by scoring 22 and 51 in her first and second innings, respectively.

Rise to Glory

Smriti Mandhana ODI career

In the second ODI game of India's tour of Australia in 2016 at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart, Mandhana scored her maiden international hundred (102 off 109 balls) but the match ended in a losing cause for India. Mandhana was also the only Indian player to be named in the ICC Women's Team of the Year 2016.

Mandhana came into the team for the 2017 World Cup after recovering from an injury she sustained, an anterior cruciate ligament rupture, during her time at the WBBL in January that year. In her five-month recovery period, she missed the World Cup Qualifier and the Quadrangular Series in South Africa. She began the World Cup with a 90 against England in Derby, in the first of the group matches. She helped her team win by 35 runs and was named the player of the match followed by her second hundred in a One Day International against West Indies (106*).

The Indian opener could only manage to score 36 runs in the next seven innings, including a duck against England in the final while India were chasing 229 at the Lord's. Mandhana finished the tournament with 232 runs at 29.00.

Mandhana scored 135 against South Africa in the second ODI in 2018 just after she made 84 in Kimberly. India won the match by 88 runs and Mandhana was awarded player of the match. She had a great home series against Australia and England as he hit four half-centuries in the six ODI matches. Her brilliant run with the bat continued in Sri Lanka (September 2018) and New Zealand (January 2019) as she compiled 138 and 196 runs respectively in the three-match ODI series in both countries against the host nation.

Mandhana scored 63 and 66 against England as India beat them 2-1 in the ODIs at home in February 2019. Barring her 86 in Mackay in the second ODI against Australia, Mandhana wasn't at her best in the tours of England and Australia in 2021. She was named in the Mithali Raj-led squad for the 2022 Women's World Cup in New Zealand.

Mandhana started the tournament with a score of 52 against Pakistan and hit 123 against the West Indies in Hamilton. She made 71 in India's final round-robin game against South Africa but that went in vain as the Women in Blue crashed out of the tournament. Mandhana scored 327 at 46.71 in that World Cup.

She was unbeaten on 94 against Sri Lanka in the second ODI in Pallekele. Mandhana made 91, 40, and 50 in India's white-ball tour of England as the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side scripted a 3-0 whitewash in ODIs against England for the first time since 2001-02.

Smriti Mandhana T20I career

Smriti made her T20I debut against Bangladesh on April 5, 2013, and scored 39 runs off 36 balls in Vadodara. She smashed her first T20I (52) fifty against South Africa in her eighth inning. The gap between her first and second T20I half-century is 21 innings and 1,174 days. She ended the drought with a 42-ball 57 against the Proteas women on February 16, 2018.

In between those two knocks, there was a string of low scores. She scored back-to-back fifties against Australia (67) and England (76) at the Brabourne Stadium in the Tri-Nation Women's T20 series in 2018. She was the second-highest run-getter in the tri-series, hitting 208 runs in four innings but India missed out in the final as they could manage just one win from four games.

Mandhana scored 178 runs in the 2018 Women's T20 World Cup in the West Indies, she was the third most runs-scorer behind Harmanpreet Kaur (183) and Alyssa Healy (225). The Indian opener smashed 83 off 55 balls against eventual champions Australia, she racked up nine fours and three sixes in her magnificent knock as India defeated the Aussies by 48 runs in their final group game.

Mandhana was not out on 63 against Pakistan in the 2022 Commonwealth Games. She hit another super inning of 61 against England in the semi-final to help India's way to the final. She was dismissed for six runs in the final by Australian pacer Darcie Brown, India eventually fell nine runs short of the 162-run chase and had to settle with the silver medal in what was the first event for women's cricket in Commonwealth Games.

Mandhana scored 134 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 130.09 in India's title-winning campaign in the Women's Asia Cup 2022. She raced to 51 runs off 25 balls with six fours and three sixes in a 66-run chase against Sri Lanka in the final.

The southpaw missed India's opening match against Pakistan in the 2022 Women's World Cup because of injury but later hit successive fifties including her career-best score of 87 against Ireland in Gqeberha. Mandhana once again failed in the big matches as she went for 2 runs in the semi-final against Australia. She made 151 runs in four innings in the tournament at a strike rate of 138.53.

Club career

In September 2016, Mandhana signed up a one-year deal with Brisbane Heat for the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) along with Harmanpreet Kaur and became one of the first two Indians to be signed up for the League.

Playing against Melbourne Renegades in January 2017, she fell awkwardly while fielding after bowling the final ball of her over hurting one of her knees which ruled her out of the rest of the tournament. She ended that season with 89 runs in 10 innings at a strike rate of 94.68.

She joined Hobart Hurricanes in the 2018/19 WBBL season and scored 318 runs in 13 innings at a strike rate of 144.54, including a couple of fifties. Mandhana bettered her WBBL record in the seventh season while representing Sydney Thunder. She equalled the record of highest individual score of WBBL with Ashleigh Gardner in her unbeaten 114 off 64 deliveries versus Melbourne Renegades, smashing 14 fours and three sixes in a belligerent knock in Mackay.

With 377 runs from 13 matches at an average of 34.27 and striking at 130.44, Mandhana was the Thunder's highest run-getter in WBBL 2021. In June 2018, Mandhana signed for Kia Super League defending champions Western Storm and became the first Indian to play in this league.

Mandhana was signed by Southern Brave for the inaugural edition of the Women's Hundred in England. She scored 167 runs in seven matches before she flew to India to see her family ahead of India women's Australia tour. She scored 211 runs in the second season as Southern Brave's highest run-getter in the tournament. Her best score in the tournament is 78 against Welsh Fire in 2021.

Mandhana was sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first auction of the Women's Premier League for INR 3.4 crore, making her the most expensive player of the tournament. She was named the captain of the RCB women's team in the inaugural season but failed to lead from the front with her bat. She managed just 149 runs in eight matches at 18.62 with her best score being 37.

Records

1. 2nd Most Fifites in Women's T20Is (22)
2. 3rd Most Nineties in Women's ODIs (4)
3. 6th Most Hundreds in Women's ODI series (2)
4. 5th player for the most consecutive innings without a duck in Women's T20Is (62)
5. 4th Highest partnership for the first wicket in Tests (167)
6. Highest runs by her in a calendar year in ODIs (696)
7. 5th Fewest Ducks in Women's ODIs (38.5)
8. 3rd Highest partnership for the fourth wicket in Women's ODIs (184)
9. 6th Most Runs in Women's T20Is (2802)
10. 7th Most Runs in a calendar year in Women's T20Is (622)
11. 9th Fastest to 2000 runs in Women's T20Is (84)
12. Fastest fifty by Indian women's batter in T20Is (23 balls)

Awards and Accolades

• ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year and ODI Cricketer of the Year in 2018
• Best Women's International Cricketer Award by BCCI in 2018
• Recipient of the Arjuna Award in 2019 by the Government of India
• Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy (ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year 2021)
• Sportstar ACES Awards 2020 - Sportswoman of the Year
• Named in ICC's 2022 Women's ODI and T20I Team of the Year