Smriti Mandhana Explained: India Women's Most Elegant Opening Batsman
Who Smriti Mandhana is — India women's left-handed opening batsman, ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year (2018, 2021), her cover drives and pull shots, and why she is considered India's most influential women's cricketer alongside Mithali Raj.
Smriti Mandhana (born 1996 in Mumbai, Maharashtra) is India women's left-handed opening batsman and one of the world's best women's cricketers across all three formats. She has won the ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year award twice (2018 and 2021) and is consistently ranked in the top five in ICC women's batting rankings across Tests, ODIs, and T20Is. She is known for her elegance — particularly her cover drive and pull shot — and her ability to set the tempo of an innings from the first ball.
Batting Style and Technique
Mandhana's batting style is widely praised as technically exemplary — her left-handed cover drive is considered one of cricket's most aesthetically pleasing shots in either men's or women's cricket. She bats with minimal movement before the ball is bowled, a high back-lift, and a flowing follow-through. Her pull shot is particularly effective against short-pitched bowling; she gets into position early and hits through the line rather than pulling across the ball. This combination of classical technique and aggressive intent — she averages above 40 in ODIs with a strike rate above 80 — makes her one of women's cricket's most complete opening batsmen.
Career Highlights
Mandhana's career highlights include: the first women's cricketer to score a double century in women's Tests (she scored 127 and 101 in the same Test match on separate occasions — she has not yet scored a double century); scoring 83 in the 2020 T20 World Cup semifinal vs England (India lost the final to Australia by 85 runs under DLS); scoring 1,169 runs in 2018 across all formats — the most by any woman cricketer in a calendar year at that time. She is the WPL's most commercially valuable player — her IPL-style franchise auction value reflects her national profile in India's women's cricket growth era.
Impact on Women's Cricket in India
Mandhana's commercial profile in India is one of the factors driving women's cricket's rapid growth in the country. She is one of India's most endorsed female athletes — with endorsements for Adidas, Castrol, Manyavar, and others — and her visibility in Indian advertising has normalised women's cricket for casual fans who previously followed only men's cricket. The WPL (Women's Premier League, launched 2023) identified Mandhana as its flagship face; Royal Challengers Bangalore paid ₹3.4 crore for her in the inaugural auction — the highest bid for a women's Indian cricketer at the time.
Frequently asked questions
What awards has Smriti Mandhana won?
ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year in 2018 and 2021 — two wins places her alongside Ellyse Perry (multiple ICC awards) as among women's cricket's most decorated players in the award's history. She has also won ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year multiple times and is consistently ranked in the world's top five women's batters across all formats.
What is Smriti Mandhana's batting average?
Consistently above 40 in Women's ODIs with a strike rate above 80 — exceptional figures for an opener who must face the new ball. In T20Is she averages above 25 with a strike rate above 115. Her Test average (limited Tests, women's Tests are played infrequently) is above 40. She is one of the few women's cricketers whose stats compare favourably with the men's game's top opening batsmen across all formats.
Is Smriti Mandhana the best women's cricketer in India?
She is India's most commercially prominent women's cricketer and one of the world's best. Mithali Raj (retired 2022) held the women's ODI runs record and captained India for two decades — historically the most important Indian women's cricketer. Mandhana is Raj's successor as India women's most visible figure. Other top Indian women's cricketers include Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Shafali Verma (T20 opener), and Deepti Sharma (all-rounder).