BENGALURU: As a bespectacled 15-year-old whose talent was being talked about in domestic cricket, Smriti Shriniwas
Mandhana
had a tough call to make. Cricket or studies? Her mother Smita, sitting in their middle-class dwelling in Madhavnagar, Sangli, had more confidence in her cricketing talent than the gawky teenager.
She made the choice for her daughter, she would pursue a career in cricket. It was probably one of the best decisions taken in the Mandhana family.
More than a decade later, Smriti is a force to reckon with in her chosen field, an inspiration to a generation which dares to dream and a subject for many books including a 37-pager written by a 13 year old.
There is more to the elegant Indian opener than the feat of leading Royal Challengers Bangalore to the WPL title in New Delhi on Sunday night. It wouldn’t be out of place to say Mandhana is a seasoned campaigner. At 27, she has proudly worn the Indian cap for 11 years, playing six Test matches, 82 ODIs and 128 T20Is.
But the beginning was humble. It’s a tale of a diminutive girl, with unbridled passion for the sport, in - satiable hunger for learning and big dreams amidst limited resources. The dream started to take shape when she followed her older brother Shravan, who played age-group cricket, to the nets and watched him put in the hard yards.
It started with her father gently lobbing the ball to Smriti, who wasn’t happy with his gentle deliveries. Once her father knew his daughter was cut out for more serious cricket, especially when, as a nine year old, she made it to Maharashtra U-15 side, the training turned rigorous. By the time she was 11, Smriti had made it to the Maharashtra U-19 team.
While cricket aspirants of her age were honing their skills in bigger cities like New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru with access to renowned coaches, state of the art technology and a competitive environment, Smriti’s was a different narrative.
Training at the Chintaman Rao College of Commerce grounds in her hometown under Anant Tambwekar, a star tennis ball cricketer of the region, she put in long hours, using taped balls for swing and wet tennis balls for extra bounce.
The training began to show results and the first of the many feats came in 2013, when she scored a record unbeaten 150-ball 224 for Maharashtra against Gujarat in the West Zone U-19 tournament in Vadodara. There were three more centuries scored in the tournament and she followed it up with a standout show in the Challenger Trophy.
The year was also the turning point in her young career as she made her T20I and ODI debut against a visiting Bangladesh in the span of five days. Along the way she switched from aspiring to be a power hitter like former Australian international Matthew Hayden to the elegance of southpaw and Sri Lankan stalwart Kumar Sangakkara.
A kind of player who makes scoring runs look uncomplicated, Smriti, apart from being a vital cog in the Indian team has grown into a sought after player across the world. Along with
Harmanpreet Kaur
, she opened the doors for Indian players to the Australia’s Women’s Big Bash League in 2016, signing up for Brisbane Heats. Two years later she was part of the Kia Super League. Last year, in The Hundred, representing Southern Brave, she became the first player to score 500 runs in the competition.
Apart from the runners-up finish at the 2017 World Cup and 2020 T20 World Cup, Smriti was also part of the Indian team which won the gold at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games and the silver at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
In the inaugural WPL last year, Smriti was the most expensive player at Rs. 3.4 crore. She put behind the disappointment of her team, Royal Challengers Bangalore finishing fourth among five teams and focused on course correction. The rest is history as she lifted the WPL title on Sunday night, with the promise of more to come, not just for RCB but also India.
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