Smriti Mandhana, star player of the Indian women’s cricket team in the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL 2024), has joined two-time WBBL champions Adelaide Strikers, which was announced by the team on Tuesday. Smriti Mandhana has consistently performed well in the WBBL and will now return to this league after a gap of two years.
Smriti Mandhana has been announced as a pre-draft by WBBL defending champions Adelaide Strikers. This will be the fourth stint of the Indian opener in this league.
Adelaide Strikers have included Mandhana in their squad as a pre-draft signing. This will be her fourth team in WBBL. Earlier, she has been a part of Brisbane Heat, Hobart Hurricanes and Sydney Thunder. In 2021, Smriti Mandhana, playing for Sydney Thunder, played an unbeaten innings of 114 runs off 64 balls against Melbourne Renegades, which is the joint second highest individual score in the history of the tournament.
Earlier this year, the Women’s Premier League (WPL) was played, in which Royal Challengers Bangalore won under Mandhana’s captaincy.
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Smriti the Striker 🤩
Big news from Adelaide as the @StrikersBBL secure @mandhana_smriti for #WBBL10. pic.twitter.com/X0cmTT2yb3
— Weber Women’s Big Bash League (@WBBL) August 26, 2024
Smriti Mandhana said that I am always very excited to play in Australia. She further said that given the history of the WBBL team Adelaide Strikers, I am very excited to contribute to the team. It will be fun to work with Luke. Our previous experience with each other has also been great, so we will try to continue it further.
Luke Williams was the head coach of RCB in the WPL and plays the same role with the Strikers.
The Strikers may try to make South African captain Laura Wolfart a part of their team again in the draft to be held on September 1 to strengthen their top order.
For a long time, the Strikers team wanted to include Smriti Mandhana with them, but Mandhana did not nominate herself for the draft to manage her work properly last season.
Team coach Luke Williams said about Smriti Mandhana that, Smriti Mandhana is an extraordinary talent and we welcome her to Adelaide Strikers. Her technical ability, strategy and experience are going to be very important for us. I have witnessed the dedication and energy she brings to the team on the field. Her ability and leadership skills will be very useful for us in the next season.
A total of 19 Indian women cricketers have nominated themselves for the WBBL draft to be held on Sunday.
Mandhana has already joined Adelaide Strikers. Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemima Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma are among the prominent names nominated from India for the WBBL draft.
Adelaide Strikers are scheduled to face Brisbane Heat on October 27 in the first match of WBBL 10 season.
