Eight years ago after her first T20 World Cup at the tender age of 17, Smriti Mandhana was on a flight shortly after India’s loss to Sri Lanka and wrote down three pages in her diary on her game and how she could improve.
A teenage sensation, Mandhana didn’t take long to make an impression at the international stage, making her first half-century in early 2014, a few months after her debut in her fourth ODI, against Sri Lanka. Another one followed against England soon after. Her first ODI ton did not come until 2016, when she achieved the feat against the Aussies in Hobart, but once it came there was no stopping Mandhana.
Since then, she averages 47.27 in ODIs with a strike-rate above 90. The second part of it is particularly important in this Indian setup as they head to the World Cup in New Zealand with several anchors, but few who can put the opposition attack to sword.
This is further emphasised by taking a look at the Indian batters since 2019 in ODIs. Mithali Raj has more runs than Mandhana in this time frame at a better average — 56.47 to 47.72 — but the opener has struck at a rate of over 90 while Raj has scored at a rate of 66.43.
File image of Smriti Mandhana. Image: Twitter/@BCCIWomen
The stark difference in strike rates and India’s middle-order woes in general, with Harmanpreet Kaur not hitting top gear consistently — she did give hopes of turning it around with a hundred in the 2022 ODI World Cup warm-up game against South Africa — means that Mandhana is the lynchpin of the batting line-up.
That’s not new to Mandhana, though. She was just nine years old when she made it to the Maharashtra under-15 team. By 11, she was fast-tracked to the under-19 team and when the rest of her age group were working on the board exams, Mandhana put on a streak of big runs against bigger players — smashing tons at will in the under-19 inter-state competition. Playing for India Green in the 2012/13 Challenger Trophy, Mandhana slammed 116 runs in two games, with a half-century in one of those. She won the BCCI’s MA Chidambaram Trophy in 2013/14 for the best woman cricketer.
The India call up came in 2013 and there was no looking back since then. She was named in the 2014 T20 World Cup team and skipped her class XII board exams as a result. Soon a tour of England tour followed and in no time Mandhana was the nation’s pride and the teenage sensation sweeping the front page of newspapers.
As someone who took up a cricket bat at nine after watching her brother play, Mandhana’s rise has been spectacular. In the last few years, she has gone on to become the most important cog in India’s limited-overs setup. It didn’t come easy as she hailed from a small town where facilities weren’t easy to come by. It helped that her brother was into cricket as she could always be around it.
But her batting potential only came to the fore when she creamed drives and pulls even when her father started bowling to her from 15 yards. At 15, to compete with the big town girls who played on turf wickets, she built a concrete pitch with her savings and it helped develop her back-foot game immensely.
Nine years since her international debut, Mandhana will head into just her second Women’s ODI World Cup when the tournament kickstarts on 4 March. The wounds of the loss in the 2017 World Cup final and the 2020 T20 World Cup final will still be fresh in her memory. This time around she has an even bigger responsibility at the top to fulfill her World Cup dream.
“Mentally, I’ve improved massively. I’ve understood a lot about the game and myself. I’m aware of where my focus should be, areas I need to improve,” she had said two years ago in an interview with The New Indian Express.
With the team hinging on her for the big runs, Mandhana will bank on her evolved thinking and experience to lead India’s charge at the ODI World Cup.
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