Explosive Batswoman
Smriti Shriniwas Mandhana, popularly known as Smriti Mandhana, is an internationally renowned Indian cricketer, who plays for India’s women’s national cricket team as an opener.
While discussing about Smriti Mandhana it must be mentioned that in the only four tests that she played till now, she scored 325 runs at a remarkable average of 46.42, with one century and two half centuries to her credit.
Her highest test score till today is 127 against Australia. In ODI (one day international) and T20I(T20 international) her batting performance is no less impressive. In 71 ODIs that cricketer Smriti Mandhana played till now, her batting average is 42.24 and she has five centuries and 22 half centuries in ODIs till now. Her strike rate in ODIs is above 90. In 84 T20 internationals, she has 14 half centuries, which is quite exceptional in the shortest format of the game. These impressive figures need to be highlighted in any good biography of Smriti Mandhana.
Early Signs of Greatness
Born on 18th July 1996 in Mumbai to Smita and Shrinivas Mandhana, the batting prowess of Smriti Mandhana came to limelight in October 2013 when she achieved the distinction of being the first Indian woman to score a double-hundred in a national level one-day match. While playing for Maharashtra against Gujarat in the West Zone Under-19 Tournament, she piled up an astonishing unbeaten 224 in 150 balls at the Alembic Cricket Ground in Vadodara, Gujarat.
Any biography of Smriti Mandhana must mention that she made her ODI debut against Bangladesh in Ahmedabad on 10th April 2013, when she was less than 17-year-old. Against Bangladesh only Smriti Mandhana made her T20I debut on 5th April 2013. Her test debut was on 13th August 2014, against England, when she was barely 18-year-old. But in her debut test match in Wormsley Park, England she showed huge promise when she scored 51 in the second innings, helping India win the match in the process.
Crossing Boundaries
The first female cricketer from India to have a century in both ODIs and tests in Australia, Smriti Mandhana scored her first international hundred in the second ODI game in the India-Australia series in 2016, which was held in Hobart. She scored 102 from 109 balls but India lost the match. Her second hundred in ODI came in the 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup, in a match against West Indies, which India won by seven wickets. She scored 106 not out in India’s 186 for 3.
Another important achievement in the sparkling career of Smriti Mandhana is her scoring the fastest fifty for India in Women’s T20 International. She achieved that when she scored a half century in only 24 balls against New Zealand, in Wellington, in February 2019. In doing so, she broke her own record of scoring the fastest fifty for India in Women’s T20 international which she made in 2018 against a T20 international match against England, when she scored a hurricane half century in just 25 balls.
In the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022, Smriti Mandhana again showed her brilliance by scoring a classy 123 in 119 balls against West Indies.
Esteemed Recognition
In 2018, Smriti Mandhana got the coveted distinction of being the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year and the ICC Women’s ODI Player of the Year, and in February 2019 she was appointed as the captain of India’s Women T20I squad for the three-match series against England, which made her the youngest captain for India in T20I.
In January 2022, she was awarded with the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Award for the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year by the ICC.
She also played for three sessions in Women’s Big Bash League in Australia among many other domestic tournaments. She is the second Indian after Harmanpreet Kaur to play for the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia.
According to https://crickettipmaster.com/smriti-mandhana-net-worth/ the net worth of Smriti Mandhana at present is 3.7 million USD.
FAQs
The left-handed batswoman can be easily counted among the most talented and elegant batters of the present-day cricketing world, including players from both men’s and women’s cricket.
It sounds unbelievable but she was selected to play forMaharashtra’s under-15 women’s cricket team at district level when she was just nine. She was chosen to play for the Maharashtra Under-19 Cricket team at the age of 11. That was in 2007. The age of Smriti Mandhana is 25 years.
As far as her international career goes, she has played four test matches, 71 ODIs and 84 T20Is so far.
