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As Smriti Mandhana Turns 24, Here Is How The Cricketing Fraternity Is Wishing Her On Her Birthday

By Yash Mittal

Updated - 18 Jul 2020, 06:22 PM

Smriti Mandhana
Smriti Mandhana (Credits: Twitter)

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Smriti Mandhana. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you read or hear or watch the left-handed opener from Maharashtra? Is it her flamboyance that enthralls you? Is it her sumptuous strokeplay that leaves you wanting for more? Or is it her consistency that leaves you gobsmacked?

Such is the grace of the 24-year-old Smriti Mandhana, that you can be forgiven if you choose all of the above. The swashbuckling Indian opener is celebrating her 24th birthday today and what a better day than this special occasion to reminisce about the cricketing journey of one of India’s leading women cricketers of the modern era.

Smriti Mandhana
Smriti Mandhana (Credits: Getty)

Born in Sangli, Smriti Mandhana signed up for cricket trials for fun as a nine-year-old. Mandhana used to accompany her brother for those sessions and it was one of the reasons why picked up left-hand batting even though she is right-handed.

Just like other young girls of her childhood, superstar Mithali Raj had a huge impact on a young Smriti Mandhana and one of the major reasons behind her taking up the game was Raj.

“I picked up the game because of my brother, but Mithali Raj was a big name by then and everyone wanted to be like her,” she says. “I realized her star status when I attended my first senior probables camp. To get a chance to open the batting with her in inter-camp matches was worth so much for a junior like me.” Smriti Mandhana on Mithali’s influence in taking up cricket.

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From being a bespectacled teenager to becoming the heartthrob of the nation courtesy her flamboyant batting- Smriti Mandhana’s rise has been meteoric

Training as a nine-year-old, Smriti got fast-tracked into the Maharashtra U-15 team in the same year when Mithali Raj was leading India to the finals of the Women’s World Cup.2005. Meanwhile, Smriti’s meteoric rise continued. She was fast-tracked into the Maharashtra U-19 team and then into the senior team.

Smriti’s dream of batting alongside her idol finally came true in the year 2014 when she and Mithali combined to lead India to their first Test win in over eight years at Wormsley.

Smriti Mandhana
Smriti Mandhana [Photo-Twitter]
But it was only in the 2017 50-over World Cup that Smriti finally captured the imagination of the folklore. Mandhana scored a pristine 90 in the very first game and followed it up with a swashbuckling hundred in the very next game. And, apart from his ability to score big runs, it was the ease with which she player her strokes that made everyone take note of her.

Mandhana was conferred with the prestigious Arjuna Award in 2018. She also won the awards for ICC Women’s ODI Player of the Year, ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year, and BCCI’s Best Women’s International Cricketer of the Year in the same year (2018). Mandhana was also the No.1 ranked ODI batswoman for a major part of 2019.

Speaking of her career numbers, Smriti Mandhana has thus far featured in 2 Tests, 51 ODIs, and 75 T20Is, in which she has racked up 81, 2025, and 1716 runs at an average of 27.0, 43.1 and 25.2 with 30 half-centuries and four hundred. Smriti is currently the 4th ranked Indian batswoman in the ODI rankings.

 

Here’s how the cricketing fraternity is wishing Smriti Mandhana on her 24th birthday-

 

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