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On July 18, 1996, India women's cricket team opener Smriti Mandhana was born to Shrinivas and Smita Mandhana. Her father Shrinivas and sibling Shravan played district-level cricket for Sangli. She got inspired to build her career in cricket after watching her brother play in Maharashtra state Under-16 tournaments. She was selected for Maharashtra's Under-15 team by the age of nine, while by 11, she was picked up for the state’s Under-19 squad. On April 5, 2013, Mandhana broke into international cricket at the age of just 16 with her WT20I debut for India against Bangladesh in Vadodara. After five days, she made her WODI debut against the Bangla side in Ahmedabad.
In August 2014, Smriti Mandhana made her Test debut against England women's cricket team in Wormsley. After 12 years of her international career, she has accumulated more than 9000 runs in 263 games played across all formats of the game. In October 2024, she completed her eighth WODI hundred against New Zealand in Ahmedabad and became the player with the most WODI centuries for India, surpassing former India captain Mithali Raj’s feat of seven tons. Mandhana has hoarded 11 hundreds in the longest form of white-ball cricket, so far. In June 2025, she struck a ton against England in a WT20I game held in Nottinghamshire and became the first India women batter to rack up centuries in cricket’s all three formats.
Smriti Mandhana’s achievements in WPL
Smriti Mandhana is currently the second-leading run-scorer for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Women’s Premier League (WPL). She has scored 646 runs with four fifties in 26 matches at a strike rate of 128.68. In 2024, she became the second skipper to win the WPL title.
As an RCB captain, she scripted history as she became the first skipper of the franchise to help Bengaluru win their maiden title (including IPL and WPL). Under her, RCB beat the Meg Lanning-led Delhi Capitals (DC) in the final played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
