Indian women’s team captain Smriti Mandhana started practicing in the nets for her maiden series for India against ZimbabweScroll down to read the full story.
Published: October 13, 2026, 4:52 PM IST
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Smriti Mandhana begins practicing for Zimbabwe series (Image – BCCI Women)
The Indian women’s team is ready to face Zimbabwe in the white-ball seriesThe series will begin from October 16 onwards in RaipurThis fixture will be special for the Indian team and fans as wellStar player, Smriti Mandhana will be seen handling the captaincy responsibility for Team India, after Harmanpreet Kaur stepped down across all the formats.
The Indian side were under Harmanpreet Kaur’s control for a while as it is going to be interesting how Smriti Mandhana will lead the national teamThe Indian team will face them in the three ODIs and T20IsThe plus point for Smriti Mandhana would be the previous captaincy experienceShe has already played a captain role for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Women’s Premier League (WPL)The franchise also won two titles in the tournament.
Ahead of the series against Zimbabwe, Smriti Mandhana also started training for the fixtures as the Indian cricket team posted a video of the Indian captain practicing and having a batting session in the nets.
Recently, the Indian team was seen achieving many milestones as they secured Asian Games 2026 goldMeanwhile, they also defeated Sri Lanka in the Women’s Asia Cup 2026 finals to seal the title.
Smriti Mandhana played an average role for India in the eventsThe Indian team defeated Sri Lanka by a big margin of 147 runs to seal a gold medalIn that match, Smriti Mandhana delivered a remarkable performance for India by scoring 79 runs off 45 ballsIn her knock, she smashed 5 fours and 7 sixes at a strike rate of 175In the rest of the matches at Asian Games 2026, she scored 116 runs in two innings.
According to her records, she’s talking to the sky as her recent impressive knocks helped her to become the leading T20I run-scorer in women’s cricket and also helped to etch her name for the most international runs and centuries record.
Speaking about her overall performance for IndiaIn 179 T20Is, she has managed to score 4,867 runs at an average of 31.00 and a strike rate of 127, including 2 centuries and 37 fiftiesIn the last two matches, Smriti has scored 765 runs in 21 innings at an average of 38.25 and a strike rate of 148.25It included a century and five fifties with the highest score of 124.
