Wake up, hit runs, sleep, repeat! The schedule of Ms. consistent! Mandhana, one of the most celebrated players of recent times and a legend in making for sure! She always is the player to watch out for! Here’s her cricket journey you all need to know:
Smriti Mandhana – Profile
Table of Contents
| NAME | SMRITI SHRINIWAS MANDHANA |
| DATE OF BIRTH | JULY 18,1996 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA |
| NAME OF PARENTS | SMITA MANDHANA – MOTHER
SHRINIWAS MANDHANA – FATHER |
| SIBLINGS | SHRAVAN MANDHANA – BROTHER |
| BATTING | LEFT-HANDED |
| BOWLING | RIGHT-ARM MEDIUM PACE |
| JERSEY NUMBER | 18 |
| TEST DEBUT | AUGUST 13, 2014 against England |
| ODI DEBUT | APRIL 10, 2013 against Bangladesh |
| T20 DEBUT | APRIL 5, 2013 against Bangladesh |
Childhood of Smriti Mandhana
A part of the Maharashtra under-15 team at the age of nine and Maharashtra under-19 team at the age of 11, this woman has turned into a star and GENErously so! Inspired by both her father and brother, the resident of Sangli, Maharashtra, with the support of her family, today sees no looking back! Where her father still looks after her cricket schedules, her mother makes sure she’s fit! And her brother? He still bowls to her in the nets! Now you must be wondering, who is this wonder woman? None other than Smriti Shriniwas Mandhana, folks!
The record-setter
Born on July 18th, 1996, her first milestone came in October 2013, in the form of an unbeaten inning of 224 runs that she scored representing Maharashtra in a one-day game against Gujarat. Mandhana represented her country in the whites against England in August 2014 at Wormsley Park. Scoring 22 and 51 runs in both the innings respectively, the youngster opened the innings with Thirush Kamini, chasing 182.
2016 was a year to remember for Smriti! Turning out to be the top-scorer of the Women’s Challenger Trophy with 192 runs to her name, she also made sure her team crosses the line and move towards winning the trophy. She scored 62 runs in the finals of the tournament against India Blue, representing India Red. Along with that, she also had three half-centuries to her name!
Entry to Women’s Big Bash League
Mandhana has also been among the first two Indians to be signed up for the Women’s Big Bash League. She represented Brisbane Heat but was ruled out due to injury on her debut season. She had scored 89 runs off 12 innings in the same.
Mandhana’s maiden international hundred, though in a losing cause, also came in 2016, when she played in blue against Australia in Hobart.
The only Indian player to be named in the ICC Women’s Team of the Year, Smriti Mandhana had another feather added to her hat in the year 2016!
2017 was the year that saw Mandhana’s return from injury owing to which she not only missed the World Cup Qualifier and the Quadrangular Series in South Africa. She scored 90 runs against England at the start of the World Cup. She scored her second One Day century against the West Indies.
An exciting year for the Indian run-machine, 2018 saw Smriti signing up for Kia Super League. Representing the Western Storms, she has been the first Indian to be a part of the league. Hobart Hurricane had the Smriti Hurricane where the 2018-2019 Big Bash League is concerned.
Smriti stars in Women’s Kia Super League
Smriti scored the first century in the Women’s Cricket Super League’18 too. It was also in October’18 that Smriti was called the “Star” of the team. This came ahead of her selection in India’s squad that would tour the Caribbean. During the tour, the “star” also became the third cricketer to score 1000 runs in WT20 matches. Ending the year on a high, Mandhana was not only the leading run-scorer in WODIs but also became the ICC women’s cricketer of the year and the ICC women’s ODI player of the year. She had 669 runs to her name with an average of 66.90. It was also in December’18 that she was also awarded with the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Award for the best female cricketer of the year by the ICC.
Smriti Mandhana in 2019
Come 2019, the Indian run-machine scored the fastest fifty, that which came off only 24 balls, against New Zealand. In February 2019, Smriti, 22, was also named the captain of the Indian T20 team. She came to be known as the youngest woman to be captaining the side. In May, Smriti had another milestone achieved when she won the International Woman Cricketer of the Year award at the Ceat International Cricket Awards. Ending the year, she became the third-fastest cricketer to score 2000 runs in WODIs, in terms of the number of innings, which came off just 51 innings.
The left-hander, a small-town girl, turned Indian Cricket around in so many aspects. From enjoying the peak of her career to managing her academics when she was younger, let’s look at the lesser-known facts about the player!
Lesser known facts about Smriti Mandhana
Did you know? Did you know Smriti, though has never used it, possesses a bat that was gifted to her brother Shravan, by Rahul Dravid? Also, did you know, both her father and brother were into playing the sport and that her brother came in as an inspiration for Smriti?
The girl with number 18 on her Jersey, mainly because it’s her birth date, had been a commerce student even though she liked science better. This was because her mother thought that managing both sport and academics might prove to be a problem. Also, earlier, she wanted her jersey number to be 7 because that was her roll-number in school, however, she couldn’t get it as it was already taken by someone else.
Smriti was only 17 when she played her debut ODI and only 18 years of age when she represented the country in white.
A legend in the making for sure, Smriti Mandhana, presently as 2025 runs to her name in ODIs, 1451 runs to her name in T20s and 81 runs to her name in Test Cricket.
Social Media
Here are some of the latest pictures of Smriti Mandhana
