Born Leader

When Harmanpreet Kaur had taken over the reins of the Indian team about a decade ago, women’s cricket wasn’t nearly as popular as it ought to have been in a cricket-mad country. On Kaur’s resignation as captain from all international formats on September 6, the era of Smriti Mandhana begins at a time when the women’s sport is brimming with infinite possibilities in India, at both the international and franchise levels. Therefore, 30-year-old Mandhana will, in many ways, become the first women’s captain of India to begin her tenure with the same scrutiny and pressure as her male counterparts.

Mandhana, though, already knows what it takes to lead big sides to trophies with the world watching, having strategized Royal Challengers Bengaluru to two of the four Women’s Premier League (WPL) titles held thus far, including this year. Even when she wasn’t captain, the dashing left-handed opener always did lead with the bat, like when she top-scored for her side with 434 tournament runs to play a key hand in India winning their maiden 50-over World Cup last November.

With an eye on the upcoming ICC titles – the inaugural Women’s Champions Trophy in 2027 followed by the T20 World Cup – as well as the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, there had been murmurs of the women’s team looking to move on from 37-year-old Kaur. Mandhana was always going to be the shoo-in replacement: not only because she was the vice-captain for much of Kaur’s captaincy, but largely due to her phenomenal appetite for scaling greater heights. Just 30, she is already the leading run-scorer in women’s cricket across formats, as well as the leading century-maker with 18 hundreds.