Smriti Mandhana included in TIME magazine's list of 100 Most Influential People in sports, only Indian on roster

Smriti Mandhana's name in the TIME magazine's list of 100 Most Influential People in sports is a major honour for India.

Team India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana has made her way to the prestigious TIME magazine’s list of 100 Most Influential People in Sports, 2026. In a vast list of sportspersons from various disciplines, the southpaw batter, who is participating in the Women’s T20 World Cup, happens to be the only Indian.

Smriti Mandhana enters TIME magazine’s top 100

Mainly, the list includes, athletes, coaches and investors, who are “shaping sports today”. The list is topped by basketball player LeBron James, while some of the big names like Lionel Messi, Christiano Ronaldo, tennis star Carlos Alcaraz are there too. As far as the cricketers are concerned, South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma makes the cut as well.

TIME noted, “The records keep tumbling in for Smriti Mandhana. The Mumbai-born left-handed opening batter was the first Indian woman to score a double century in a domestic one-day game, the first to score a century in all three international formats, and is a joint holder of the most international women’s cricket centuries with 17.

“Mandhana is also the first woman to score more than 1,000 one-day international runs in a calendar year. But Mandhana is proudest of the team honors she is also accumulating. She captained the Royal Challengers Bangalore to the 2024 and 2026 Women’s Premier League titles and was vice captain for India’s triumph at last year’s ICC Women’s World Cup, scoring the second-most runs in the tournament. In 2024, Mandhana set the record for most international runs across formats by a woman and then beat her own record last year—a feat that contributed to her being crowned BBC Indian Sportswoman of 2025.”

Smriti Mandhana record in 2025

Mandhana is going through bit of a purple patch in her career, where big runs are coming easy for her. IN ODIs last year, she played 23 and went on to score 1,362 runs at an average 61.90, scoring 5 tons and 5 fifties. IN the T20Is, she played 10 and scored 299 runs at an average of 33, hitting two fifties.

In the victorious WC campaign, she finished as the second-highest run-getter, scoring 434 in 9 matches at an average of 54.25. She had an excellent partnership at the top of the order wit Pratika Rawal, that managed to give India solid starts, throughout the tournament. In fact, she played a big role in RCB’s second WPL title as well, scoring 377 runs in 9, at a strike-rate of 153.