Indian women’s cricket team’s star opener and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana has once again made India shine around the world. Time magazine has released its list of 100 most influential athletes in the world for 2026 and Smriti Mandhana is the only Indian to make the list.
Time magazine’s list of athletes who changed the world of sportsCoaches and investors are included. The list includes big names like American basketball legend LeBron James, football heroes Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, tennis star Carlos Alcaraz and FIFA president Gianni Infantino. Apart from the memory of the cricket world, South African captain Temba Bavuma also made it.
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Writing about 29-year-old Smriti Mandhana, Time magazine said, the Mumbai-born left-handed batsman is constantly breaking new records. She is the first Indian woman to score a double century in domestic ODIs. It is played in all three formats of cricket, namely TestsFirst Indian woman to score centuries in ODIs and T20Is. He has a joint maximum of 17 centuries in international cricket.
Smriti is the first woman cricketer to score over 1000 ODI runs in a calendar year. But Smriti herself emphasized on team wins rather than individual records. Under her captaincy, Royal Challengers Bangalore won the Women’s Premier League title in 2024 and she was instrumental in India’s ICC Women’s World Cup win last year as vice-captain and was the second highest run-scorer in the tournament. In 2024, he set the record for most runs scored in a year and broke his own record the following year. He was named 2025 BBC Indian Spot for his performanceShe was also adjudged ‘Woman of the Year’.