Mandhana was born on 18 July 1996 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, to Smita and Shrinivas Mandhana, in a MarwariHindu family. Her father worked as a chemical distributor, while her mother was a housewife.[9][10][11] When she was two years old, her family moved to Madhavnagar, a suburb of Sangli in Maharashtra, where she completed her schooling. She attended Chintaman Rao College of Commerce in Sangli.[12][13] Mandhana's father played cricket at the district level for Sangli, as did her brother, Shravan, who is now a bank manager. Watching her brother compete in Maharashtra state Under-16 tournaments inspired Mandhana to take up the sport. By the age of nine, she was selected for Maharashtra's Under-15 team, and by eleven, she was picked for the Maharashtra Under-19 team.[12]
Personal life
Mandhana has been dating music composer-filmmaker Palash Muchhal since 2019.[14]
Domestic career
Her first breakthrough came in October 2013, when she became the first Indian woman to score a double-hundred in a one-day game. Playing for Maharashtra against Gujarat, she scored an unbeaten 224 off 150 balls in the West Zone Under-19 Tournament, at the Alembic Cricket Ground in Vadodara.[15]
In the 2016 Women's Challenger Trophy, Mandhana scored three half-centuries for India Red in as many games, and helped her team win the trophy by making an unbeaten 62 off 82 balls in the final against India Blue. With 192 runs, she emerged as the tournament's top-scorer.[16]
In September 2016, Mandhana was signed up for a one-year deal with Brisbane Heat for the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL), and along with Harmanpreet Kaur, became one of the first two Indians to be signed up for the League.[17] Playing against Melbourne Renegades in January 2017, she fell awkwardly while fielding after bowling the final ball of her over hurting her knee. She was ruled out of the rest of the tournament which she ended having scored 89 runs in 12 innings.[18][19]
In the inaugural WPL auction held in February 2023, she was offered ₹3.4 crores by Royal Challengers Bangalore, making her the highest-bid player in the auction and was also elected as the team's captain.[29][30] Under her captaincy, Royal Challengers Bangalore won their maiden WPL title in 2024, marking a significant turnaround from the previous season's challenges. Finishing the tournament as the second-highest run scorer, Mandhana played a pivotal role in RCB's successful campaign.[31]
International career
Smriti Mandhana made her Test debut in August 2014 against England at Wormsley Park. She helped her team to win the match by scoring 22 and 51 in her first and second innings, respectively; in the latter innings, she shared in an opening-wicket partnership of 76 runs with Thirush Kamini, chasing 182.[32][33]
In the second ODI game of India's tour of Australia in 2016 at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart, Mandhana scored her maiden international hundred (102 off 109 balls), in a losing cause.[34] Mandhana was the only Indian player to be named in the ICC Women's Team of the Year 2016.[35]
Mandhana came into the team for the 2017 World Cup after recovering from an injury she sustained, an anterior cruciate ligament rupture, during her time at the WBBL in January that year. In her five-month recovery period, she missed the World Cup Qualifier and the Quadrangular Series in South Africa.[36] She began the World Cup with a 90 against England in Derby, in the first of the group matches. She helped her team win by 35 runs, and was named the player of the match.[37] followed by her second hundred in a One Day International against West Indies,(106*)
In October 2018, she was named in India's squad for the Women's World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies.[45][46] Ahead of the tournament, she was named as the star of the team.[47] During the tournament, she became the third cricketer for India to score 1,000 runs in WT20I matches.[48] She ended that year as the leading run-scorer in WODIs with 669 at an average of 66.90. She was adjudged the ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year and the ICC Women's ODI Player of the Year.[49]
In February 2019, she was named as the captain of India's Women T20I squad for the three match against England. She became the youngest T20I captain for India when she led the women's team against England in the first T20I in Guwahati. At 22 years and 229 days, the India women's cricket team opener is taking over from Harmanpreet Kaur, who has been ruled out of the three-match series with an ankle injury.[50]
In May 2019, she has won the International Woman Cricketer of the Year awards at CEAT International Cricket Awards 2019.[51] In November 2019, during the series against West Indies, she became the third-fastest cricketer, in terms of innings, to score 2,000 runs in WODIs, doing so in her 51st innings.[52]
Mandhana scored most runs (763) in T20Is in 2024. This was most by any player scoring most run in T20I in a single year.[64][65] She scored 30 half century most in women's T20Is surpassing Suzie Bates (28) and scored 8 half century in 2024 most by an Indian, surpassing Mithali Raj (7) in 2018.[66][67] She became second Indian batter to score fifty plus runs in three or more consecutive women's T20Is (3) after Mithali Raj (4 between 2016 and 2018).[68][69] She also scored the most runs by an Indian woman in a bilateral T20I series (193) surpassed Mithali Raj (192) against South Africa in 2018.[70][71]
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