How Mandhana became a cricketer?
Mandhana started playing cricket at an early age following the footsteps of her elder brother Shravan Mandhana. The Sangli girl narrated a very interesting reason behind her being a left-handed batter.
Apparently, her brother used to bat left-handed and therefore all the kits at her disposal were that of a southpaw, hence she also started batting left-handed.
At the age of nine, Smriti was picked up in Maharashtra's U-15 side and by the age of eleven, she was already on the state's U-19 side.
International career and achievements
Smriti came to the limelight in 2013, when she became the first Indian woman to slam a double ton in a one-day game during a domestic match against Gujarat when she scored an unbeaten 224 off 150 deliveries in the West Zone U-19 tournament.
The same year was picked up in the national side and she made her Test debut against England in 2014 and played an important role in her team's victory in that game.
Her maiden ODI century against Australia in Hobart.
Later in the 2017 Women's World Cup in England Mandhana played some vital ODI knocks and helped her team enter the finals, which the Women In Blue lost by 9 runs.
Ever since her exploits in the Women' WC in 2017, Smriti became a household name, and her popularity and reputation continued growing exponentially.
She has also played for WBBL side Brisbane Heat (2016-17), Hobart Hurricanes (2018-present), and English T20 side Western Storm (2018-present). She leads Indian Women's IPL side Trailblazers.
Records:
Smriti has so far played 3 Tests, 59 WODIs, 81 WT20Is, 25 WBBL and scored 167, 2253 and 1901 runs, respectively. The southpaw averages 33.40 in Tests, 41.72 in ODIs and 26.04 in T20Is. She has slammed two fifties in Tests, 4 ODI tons and 18 fifties, and 13 T20I half-centuries.
She became the youngest T20I captain for India when she led the national side in February 2019 in Guwahati against England. She also became the third Indian cricketer to amass 1000 WT20I runs. In 2019, she became the fastest cricketer to score 2000 runs in WODIs in her 51st innings.
Smriti was involved in a 167-run partnership runs for the first wicket in Test cricket, which is the fourth-highest format.
With 911 runs, she's sixth on the list for most runs in a series in ODIs. She has slammed two tons in a WODI series and is sixth on the list. She has scored 2 nineties in WODIs.
She is eighth on the list in WT20Is with 13 fifties. Mandhana has scored 622 runs in WT20Is, fourth in a calendar year.
Awards and accolades
In 2018, she was adjudged the ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year and the ICC Women's ODI Player of the Year.
She was the only Indian player to be named in the ICC Women's Team of the Year in 2016.
She was awarded the Arjuna Award for her outstanding performance in Sports and Games in 2018.
Mandhana is also popular amongst boys for her good looks and commands big following on social media.