Mandhana becomes first woman to reach 11,000 international runs

Smriti Mandhana became the first woman cricketer to complete 11,000 international runs, reaching the mark during India's Asian Games gold-medal final against Sri Lanka at Korogi Sports Park in Aichi-Nagoya. She entered the match on 10,987 runs — 788 in Tests, 5,411 in ODIs and 4,788 in T20Is — and got there with a six in the third over. She recently passed Mithali Raj's 10,868 runs with a 124 against Hong Kong, and overtook Suzie Bates as the leading women's T20I scorer in the semifinal against Bangladesh.

Written by AI from Times of India — Top · not yet reviewed by an editor · Published 22 Sept 2026, 4:28 pm IST

Source

Times of India — Top · read the original report ↗

#smriti mandhana#womens cricket#asian games#cricket records#india

Desk check · compared with the source

What the desk checked (5)

Smriti Mandhana became the first woman cricketer to complete 11,000 international runs, reaching the mark in the Asian Games gold-medal final against Sri Lanka at Korogi Sports Park, Aichi-Nagoya. — Figure and venue appear in source; no official body cited as the source of the record claim.
She entered the final on 10,987 runs — 788 in Tests, 5,411 in ODIs and 4,788 in T20Is. — Component figures in source add up to 10,987, internally consistent.
She passed Mithali Raj's 10,868 runs with a 124 against Hong Kong in the Women's Asia Cup earlier this month, her 18th international century. — Figures appear in source; no external attribution given.
She overtook Suzie Bates (4,758) as the leading women's T20I run-scorer during the semifinal against Bangladesh, moving to 4,788. — Consistent with the T20I total cited elsewhere in the source.
Mandhana and Shafali Verma's partnership aggregate passed 4,000 runs, ahead of Esha Oza and Theertha Satish's 2,949. — Figures appear in source without attribution.

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Analysts’ view opinion

AI Sports Analyst

This is more than a numerical landmark for Mandhana — it is a marker of a player at the absolute peak of her form. A 124 against Hong Kong, 37 off 19 against Bangladesh and now a 31-ball fifty in a gold-medal final show a batter adapting her tempo to whatever the situation demands. Reaching 11,000 barely two weeks after passing Mithali Raj's aggregate says as much about her scoring rate as her longevity.

Her tally splits across 788 in Tests, 5,411 in ODIs and 4,788 in T20Is, showing the runs are not propped up by a single format.
Passing Suzie Bates as the leading run-scorer in women's T20Is and becoming the first Indian woman with 100 T20I sixes reframes her as a power opener, not merely an accumulator.
The Mandhana–Shafali Verma partnership moving past 4,000 runs, far clear of the second-placed pair on 2,949, marks India's top order as a structural strength rather than a hot streak.
A 99-run stand in the final, following Shafali's 49-ball hundred in the semifinal, points to an India side built to bend games their way inside the powerplay.
Sri Lanka, with bronze in 2014 and silver in 2022, are still chasing a first Asian Games gold, and India's wins in the 2023 final and this month's Asia Cup final tilt the psychological edge.

What to watch — Watch how long Mandhana sustains this tempo across a multi-format season, and how the opening pair responds once opposition sides start planning specifically for it.

The story only takes matters up to the milestone and her fifty — it does not establish the final result, her eventual score, or who won the gold.

Deep dive

Research brief · 8 facts · 6 dates · exam-ready

The brief

Context

India opener and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana became the first woman cricketer to complete 11,000 runs in international cricket, reaching the mark on Tuesday during India's Asian Games women's cricket gold-medal final against Sri Lanka at Korogi Sports Park in Aichi-Nagoya. She had entered the match on 10,987 runs across Tests, ODIs and T20Is and needed just 13. The milestone caps a run of records: she recently passed Mithali Raj as the leading run-scorer in women's international cricket and overtook New Zealand's Suzie Bates as the top women's T20I scorer.

Key facts

Mandhana became the first woman cricketer to complete 11,000 international runs, reaching the mark on Tuesday in the Asian Games gold-medal final against Sri Lanka.
She entered the final on 10,987 runs: 788 in Tests, 5,411 in ODIs and 4,788 in T20Is, needing 13 for the landmark.
She hit two boundaries in the opening over and a six in the third over to reach 11,000, after India opted to bat first.
Earlier this month she passed Mithali Raj's 10,868 runs with a 124 against Hong Kong in the Women's Asia Cup, taking her tally to 10,880 then.
Her 124 against Hong Kong was her 18th international century, taking her past Meg Lanning and Laura Wolvaardt for most hundreds in women's international cricket at the time.
In the Asian Games semifinal against Bangladesh she made 37 off 19 balls, moving to 4,788 T20I runs to pass Suzie Bates' 4,758; she also became the first Indian woman to hit 100 sixes in T20Is.
Mandhana reached her half-century in the final off 31 balls; her partnership with Shafali Verma crossed 4,000 aggregate T20I runs, ahead of UAE's Esha Oza and Theertha Satish (2,949).
India beat Japan by eight wickets in the quarterfinal and Bangladesh by 114 runs in the semifinal, where Shafali Verma made an unbeaten 100 off 49 balls.

Timeline

2014Sri Lanka win bronze in Asian Games women's cricket.
2022Sri Lanka win silver in Asian Games women's cricket.
2023India win Asian Games gold in their only previous appearance in the women's cricket event, beating Sri Lanka in the final.
Earlier this monthMandhana scores 124 against Hong Kong in the Women's Asia Cup, passing Mithali Raj's 10,868 runs to reach 10,880; India also win the Women's Asia Cup final against Sri Lanka.
Asian Games semifinal (about two weeks after the Hong Kong innings)Mandhana makes 37 off 19 in India's 114-run win over Bangladesh, passing Suzie Bates as the leading women's T20I run-scorer and hitting her 100th T20I six.
Tuesday (Asian Games final)Mandhana completes 11,000 international runs with a six in the third over against Sri Lanka at Korogi Sports Park, Aichi-Nagoya.

Who has a stake

Smriti Mandhana — India vice-captain and left-hand opener; first woman to 11,000 international runs and current leading scorer in women's internationals and women's T20Is.
Indian women's cricket team — Defending Asian Games champions, playing the gold-medal final against Sri Lanka with an unchanged XI.
Sri Lanka women's team — Seeking their first Asian Games gold after bronze in 2014 and silver in 2022; beaten by India in the 2023 final and this month's Asia Cup final.
Shafali Verma — Mandhana's opening partner; scored an unbeaten 100 off 49 balls in the semifinal and shares the most prolific partnership in women's T20I cricket (over 4,000 runs).
Mithali Raj, Suzie Bates, Meg Lanning, Laura Wolvaardt — Record-holders whose marks Mandhana has surpassed — overall runs, T20I runs and international centuries respectively.

Why it matters

Mandhana's 11,000 runs is a first in the history of women's cricket and comes with records across formats — most international runs, most T20I runs and most international centuries — signalling both individual longevity and the expanding volume of women's international fixtures. It also lands in a high-stakes setting: India defending the Asian Games title they won in 2023 against a Sri Lanka side chasing its first gold.

UPSC angle

Prelims pointers

Smriti Mandhana: first woman cricketer to score 11,000 international runs (Tests + ODIs + T20Is).
Records surpassed by Mandhana: Mithali Raj's 10,868 overall runs; Suzie Bates' 4,758 T20I runs; Meg Lanning and Laura Wolvaardt for most women's international centuries (Mandhana's 18th).
Venue of the Asian Games women's cricket final: Korogi Sports Park, Aichi-Nagoya.
India won women's cricket gold at the 2023 Asian Games, their only previous appearance in the event.
Sri Lanka's Asian Games women's cricket record: bronze in 2014, silver in 2022.
Mandhana–Shafali Verma: most prolific partnership in women's T20I cricket, past 4,000 runs; UAE's Esha Oza–Theertha Satish second with 2,949.

Mains framing

Mandhana's 11,000 international runs is best read as a marker of how women's cricket has changed: sustained high-volume international scheduling, T20 formats that reward aggressive openers, and multi-sport platforms such as the Asian Games that give the women's game medal-event visibility. Her record set — 788 Test, 5,411 ODI and 4,788 T20I runs, 18 international hundreds, 100 T20I sixes, and a 4,000-plus run opening partnership with Shafali Verma — shows that longevity is now possible for Indian women cricketers who once had far fewer fixtures than a Mithali Raj-era peer would have wished for. The implications are institutional as much as personal: milestones of this kind widen the audience, strengthen the case for deeper domestic pipelines and pay parity debates, and raise the competitive floor for rivals such as Sri Lanka, who have moved from bronze in 2014 to silver in 2022 to a first gold-medal push. The way forward lies in converting individual landmarks into structural depth — more Tests and bilateral series for women, a broader pool of match-winners beyond the top order, and continued inclusion of women's cricket in continental and Olympic-style events.

Key terms

International runs: Combined runs scored across all three international formats — Test, ODI and T20I cricket.
Asian Games women's cricket: Medal event in the continental multi-sport Games; India won gold in 2023, their only previous appearance in the event.
T20I: Twenty20 International, the 20-overs-a-side international format in which Mandhana is now the leading women's run-scorer with 4,788.
Women's Asia Cup: Continental tournament where Mandhana scored 124 against Hong Kong earlier this month to pass Mithali Raj's record; India beat Sri Lanka in the final.
Korogi Sports Park: Venue in Aichi-Nagoya hosting the Asian Games women's cricket gold-medal final between India and Sri Lanka.
Record partnership: Mandhana and Shafali Verma's combined opening stands, now past 4,000 runs — the most prolific pairing in women's T20I cricket.

Practice questions

Milestones such as Smriti Mandhana's 11,000 international runs reflect both individual excellence and structural change in women's cricket. Discuss with reference to the records cited in the story.
Examine the role of multi-sport events like the Asian Games in raising the profile of women's cricket in Asia, using India's and Sri Lanka's records in the event.
How can individual record-breaking performances be converted into broader depth in Indian women's cricket? Suggest measures.

Grounded only in the source report — figures and dates are the source's, not inferred.

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