Happy Birthday Smriti Mandhana
Smriti Mandhana, the prodigy Indian opener, has turned a year older and is now 26 years old (July 18). Mandhana is now one of Team India’s most important players, made her T20 International and ODI debut at the age of 16. She has come a long way since then and made us proud.
Mandhana enrolled in cricket trials when he was nine years old just for fun. She had joined her older brother in enough of those practices despite being a right-handed batter to pick up left-handed batting. Mandhana loved cricket, and her family is very supportive of her endeavors. Her mother Smita took care of her meals, clothes, and other organizational details, her father Shrinivas, a chemical distributor, took care of her cricket practice, and her brother Shravan still bowls to her in the nets.
She was quickly promoted to the Maharashtra Under-19 squad at the age of 11, and four years later, to the senior team. The teenage player made her domestic debut against Saurashtra, scoring an incredible 155.
Mandhana scored 50 on her Test debut and was instrumental in India’s historic Test victory over England in 2014. In two consecutive World T20 tournaments and in her first appearance in the WBBL, she failed to live up to her potential. However, after missing more than five months of activity due to an ACL rupture, she lit up the 2017 World Cup with two brilliant performances.
Mandhana is the youngest player from India to ever captain the team in the shortest format. In the first T20I of the 2019 series against England, she made history. Mandhana led the side from the front at the age of 22 years and 229 days. Although Mandhana has long served as Harmanpreet Kaur’s deputy.
As of today, she has received a lot of accolades for her performance. She received the Best Women’s International Cricketer award from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in June 2018. She received the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Award for finest female cricketer of the year in December 2018 from the International Cricket Council (ICC). She was nominated for the ICC Women’s T20 Player of the Year on December 30, 2021. She, Tammy Beaumont, Lizelle Lee, and Gaby Lewis were all nominated for the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year award in December 2021. She received the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Award for the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year from the ICC in January 2022.
Given her talent, Mandhana has a lot to achieve and we hope she continues her good run just like this. Happy Birthday Smriti Mandhana, the Indian Women’s Cricket Team’s prodigy.
