Smriti Mandhana - Interesting Facts, Trivia, And Records

Smriti Mandhana, who celebrates her birthday on 18th July, is one of the best openers in women's cricket. The elegant left-handed batter was amongst India's youngest cricketers when she made her debut at the age of 16. 

Here are a few interesting unknown facts, trivia, and records about Smriti Mandhana: 

1) Mandhana was born in Mumbai to Smita and Shrinivas Mandhana. When she was two, the family moved to Madhavnagar, Sangli in Maharashtra, where she completed her schooling.

2) 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.

3) 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. 

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

5) 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. 

6) Mandhana made her Test debut in August 2014 against England at Wormsley Park. She helped her team to win the match by scoring 22 and 51 in her first and second innings. 

7) In June 2018, Mandhana signed for Kia Super League in England, becoming the first Indian to play in the league. 

8) 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.

9) 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. 

10) Smriti Mandhana has played 59 ODIs so far in which she has scored 2253 runs, including four centuries. In 78 T20Is, the opening batter has made 1782 runs.