Smriti Mandhana the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore won the WPL this year. Smriti is a popular Indian Women’s cricketer with a huge fan following. Mandhana was born on 18 July 1996 in Chennai to Smita and Shrinivas Mandhana in a Marwari Hindu family. She can fluently speak Marathi having grown up in Maharashtra.

Source: WPL

Here are 10 lesser-known facts about Smriti.

Smriti was just 9 years old when she represented the Maharastra’s Under 15 team, and only 16 when representing India in International Cricket. 

Smriti holds the record for the Fastest 50 by an Indian Women’s Cricketer, She scored the 50 in just 23 balls.

She shares her record of being the Women’s Cricketer Of The Year 2 times with Ellyse Perry. She also shares this feat with Virat Kholi as her counterpart in men’s cricket.

Source: The Womens Cricket

Following Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana became the 2nd Indian cricketer to sign a deal with Brisbane Heat for the Women’s Big Bash League. Later on, Veda Krishnamurthy also joined the league in Australia.

Source: Scroll.in

Both her father and brother, Shravan, played cricket at the district-level, for Sangli. She was inspired to take up cricket after watching her brother play at the Maharashtra state Under-16s tournaments.

Source: LatestLY

Smriti Mandhana is a right-hander but because her father had a fascination for left-handers, she and her brother both played from that hand. 

She gave up science in school to concentrate more on cricket. Mandhana studied Bachelor of Commerce at Chintaman Rao College of Commerce in Sangli. 

In 2013, Mandhana became the first Indian woman to score a double hundred in a one-day game. While playing for Maharashtra, Smriti scored 224 off 150 balls against Gujarat. 

In June 2018, Mandhana signed for Kia Super League in England, becoming the first Indian to play in the league. In December 2018, she was presented the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Award for the best female cricketer of the year. She was also named the ODI Player of the Year by the ICC at the same time. 

Source: ESPNcricinfo

At 22 years and 229 days, Smriti Mandhana became the youngest T20I captain for India when she led the women’s team against England in the first T20I in 2019. 

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