Smriti Mandhana celebrates her century during the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup match between India and New Zealand at DY Patil Stadium on October 23, 2025 in Navi Mumbai. (Express Photo by Narendra Vaskar)India ODI World Cup winning vice-captain Smriti Mandhana on Wednesday said that she loves nothing more than cricket, reflecting on her journey from her debut till winning the World Cup in 2025. “I don’t think I love anything more than cricket. Wearing that Indian jersey is the motivation that drives us. You keep all your problems aside, and that thought alone helps you focus on life,” she said at the Amazon Sambhav Summit.
“As a kid, the madness for batting was always there. No one understood it, but in my mind, I always wanted to be called a world champion,” she added.
Mandhana also opened up about finally winning the World Cup with India and outlined two important lessons that she learnt.
“This World Cup was the reward for the battle we fought over the years. We were waiting for it so badly. I’ve been playing for more than 12 years — many times things didn’t go our way. We visualised it before the final, and when we finally saw it on the screen, it gave us goosebumps. It was an incredible, special moment,” the Indian vice-captain said.
“You always start an innings at zero, no matter if you scored a hundred before. And don’t play for yourself – that’s what we kept reminding each other,” she said.
The left hander also said the presence of veterans Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami at the final heightened the emotion.
“We really wanted to do it for them, badly. Seeing tears in their eyes made it feel like women’s cricket itself was winning. It was a battle won for all of them,” she said.
Mandhana will next be in action for the Indian team when the Women in Blue play a five-match T20I series against Sri Lanka that starts in Visakhapatnam for a couple of matches and ends in Thiruvananthapuram later this month.
(With agency inputs)
Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.
2 min read
