Smriti Mandhana has been one of the best female cricketers in world cricket. The vice-captain of the India women’s national cricket team recently won the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2026 as captain with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). This is her second WPL title in a span of three years. She was in top form during the Women’s ODI World Cup in India.
Smriti is now ranked as the No. 1 ODI batsman in the women’s International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings. The southpaw scored 1703 runs for India in a sensational 2025, including 1362 in ODIs. She created a new record in both men’s and women’s international cricket last year.
Smriti Mandhana, Queen of Cricket
In the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup, Smriti Mandhana was the leading run scorer for the India women’s national cricket team and was second overall with 434 runs in 9 innings. He averaged 54.25 in the tournament and also scored two fifties and a century.
Smriti Mandhana – New No. 1 ODI batsman in women’s ranking
-Queen of Indian cricket. pic.twitter.com/5mHJt2xq0a
– Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) 3 March 2026
Mandhana continued her form in 2026, scoring a half-century in the last three ODIs. This is why she has been ranked as the No. 1 ODI batsman with 790 points, leaving behind Laura Wolvaardt, who also has the same number of points as Mandhana. But when the Proteas face New Zealand in March and April, they will have a chance to regain this position.
Smriti Mandhana broke some records in 2025. The highest number of runs scored by a woman in a calendar year was 1362. She was the first woman to score 1000 ODI runs in a calendar year, before Laura Wolvaardt (1174) did so in 2024.
Mandhana’s explosive year 2025
Smriti Mandhana finished 2025 as the highest scorer in ODIs, in both men’s and women’s cricket, for the second consecutive year. She was also the most prolific ODI batsman in 2024, scoring 747 runs in 13 matches. Mandhana holds the record of scoring the second fastest century (50 balls) in women’s ODI after Meg Lanning (45 balls).
Mandhana holds the record for scoring most centuries jointly with Meg Lanning (17) in all three formats. She will surely surpass the Australian great as Australia retires from international cricket. This shows that Smriti Mandhana has the talent and potential to become the best female cricketer in the world.
The 29-year-old batsman finished the 2025 season as the third-highest run-scorer at the international level behind Shubman Gill and Shai Hope (1760). This was the best performance by any female cricketer in international cricket in a calendar year. The left-handed opening batsman will play in the one-off Test against the Australia women’s national cricket team on March 6.
Alana King becomes the new number 1
Apart from Smriti Mandhana, there have also been changes in ICC rankings. Alanna King became the No. 1 ODI bowler in the ICC rankings after her impressive performance against India in the recently concluded ODI series.
She finished as the leading wicket-taker in ODIs with seven wickets at an average of 16.71, ending Sophie Ecclestone’s nearly four-year reign at the top of the rankings.
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