The name Smriti Mandhana does not require any introduction among the cricket followers in our country. Smriti was born on 18th July 1996 to Smitha and Srinivas Mandhana in Maharashtra.
She comes from a family that has a deep cricketing background with her father playing for Sangli at the district level and brother playing for Maharashtra under 16. Her family used to provide her full for pursuing cricket as her career right from the start.
After class 10, Mandhana wanted to pursue science, but her mother convinced to take commerce as it would help her to handle both studies and cricket together.
She has played 51 ODI’s, 75 T20’s and 2 Test matches for India with batting averages of 43.08, 25.23, and 27 respectively. She currently dons the number 18 jersey, the same number as of Virat Kohli during international matches. Mandhana idolizes Kumara Sangakkara and Mathew Hayden.
Now, let’s see her story in detail.
The Beginning – Domestic Career
At the very early age of 9, Mandhana was selected for playing in the Under-15 Maharashtra squad. She also got selected in the Under-19 Maharashtra squad at the age of 11. She scored three centuries and an unbeaten double century against Gujarat U-19 at Vadodara in the interstate U-19 one day competition. Her consistent performance in the Under-19 tournaments helped in getting the call for Women’s challenger trophy.
T20 Journey
Mandhana made her T20 debut in the game against Bangladesh in April 2013. On 30th November 2014, she scored her first T20 half-century against South Africa in Bangalore. Her consistent performance made sure that she was a part of the T20 world cup team from 2014 to 2020. Mandhana became the youngest T20 captain for India in February 2019 against England when Harmanpreet Kaur was ruled out due to an ankle injury. In 2018, Smriti was in her best scoring 622 runs in 23 innings with an average of 28.27. She was also a part of the Indian team which emerged runners up in the 2020 T20 world cup.
ODI Career
Smriti made her ODI debut just 5 days after T20 debut. She played her first ODI on 10th April 2013 against Bangladesh. Mandhana scored her first half-century in a match against Sri Lanka at Vishakhapatnam. She scored her maiden ODI ton against Australia in 2016. The cricketer has scored 4 centuries and 17 half-centuries in ODI in which all the four has come overseas. The southpaw scored her first world cup century against West Indies in 2017 where she went on to score 108 balls 106 which consisted of 13 fours and 2 sixes.
Test – The Longer Format
One year after making her ODI and T20 debut, Smriti stepped on to test cricket. She made her debut in England against the host team in August 2014. She scored 22 in the first innings and went on to score a half-century in the second which ultimately India won. Smriti played just 2 test matches in her career and scored a total of 81 runs.
Smriti Career Stats
Now, let’s have a look into the impressive batting stats for the Southpaw
| Format | Matches | Innings | Runs | High Score | Average | Strike Rate | 100s | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test | 2 | 3 | 81 | 51 | 27.00 | 43.54 | 0 | 1 |
| ODI | 51 | 51 | 2025 | 135 | 43.08 | 84.41 | 4 | 17 |
| T20I | 75 | 73 | 1716 | 86 | 25.23 | 119.41 | 0 | 12 |
Women’s Big Bash League
In September 2016, Mandhana signed up for a one-year deal with Brisbane Heat in the WBBL. She was not at her best with scoring mere 89 runs in her 10 innings. She was asked to bat at number 5 or 6 position which is not what she is used to.
