The Leading Lady of Sports – Smriti Mandhana

She truly represents small-town India. She also represents a girl who broke stereotypes to carve a career based on her beliefs and passion. Smriti Mandhana is one of the most popular woman sportspersons or let’s remove the gender prefix, she is a leading lady of Indian sports right now. The other day, as a fellow Indian my pride doubled on finding her in a top bank advertisement, standing right next to the iconic Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The star cricketer is now proving to be an emblem of fine cricketing skills and exemplary grit.

Sangli in Maharashtra, which is known as the ‘Turmeric Capital’ and ‘Sugar Bowl’ being a major hub for turmeric and grape trade (especially raisins), is now steadily emerging as the city of origin of gem of Indian cricket, Smriti Mandhana.  The 29-year-old from Sangli took up the sport after being inspired by her father and brother, both of whom played cricket at the district level. Mandhana is already put herself on a pedestal from where her onward journey looks even more promising.

The Cricketing excellence

It was at a tender age of 13, when the girls are foraying into their teenage years and usually navigating the daily nitty-gritties, she made her senior-team debut for her home state, Maharashtra. With the fire and elegance of her game, she was captaining the side by 16! She played her first senior international match in 2013, in a T20I against Bangladesh, making her ODI debut five days later. She made her Test debut the next year, against England with a maiden fifty in the game.

Over the next decade, Mandhana established herself among the most prolific batters in women’s cricket, breaking into the top five run-scorers in ODIs and surpassing several records along the way. She was the first India women’s player to score hundreds in all three international formats, and in 2025, she hit a 50-ball hundred against England in the ODI World Cup, the second fastest by balls faced in all women’s cricket at the time.

It marked a remarkable purple patch for Mandhana. In 2024, she amassed 1659 runs, breaking a 28-year record set by Belinda Clark, for the most international runs in a calendar year. The following year, she became the first woman to score over a thousand runs in ODIs in a calendar year, 434 of those coming in India’s World Cup-winning campaign, in which she was the second-highest run-scorer. She also broke her own record for the most ODI hundreds in a year, topping her four from 2024 with five in 2025, the joint most alongside Tazmin Brits.

Mandhana made appearances in several franchise leagues, including the BBL and the Hundred, but she wrote herself into the history books at home, captaining Royal Challengers Bengaluru women to their first-ever title – men’s or women’s – in the 2024 WPL.

She currently ranks second for most ODI centuries in women’s cricket and third among the all-time run-scorers.

Recently awarded the BBC Sportswoman of the year after the legendary role in India’s historic 2025 Women’s World Cup triumph and lifting the Women’s Premier League (WPL) title for the second time as captain, Mandhana is being keenly watched for records, feats and simply her grace on and off the field!