As 2025 draws to an end, it is inevitable to not reflect at how the year went by, across domains and genres. For women's cricket, the year was headlined by Smriti Mandhana's individual brilliance and India's World Cup glory. It will go down as a historic year in women's cricket history, particularly for the sport in India.
Mandhana had always been India's best batter but there seemed to be a stumbling block for her when it came to major tournaments. The same held true for India as a team. However, in 2025, Mandhana produced a sensational run of performances that was the perfect marriage between brute power and consistency, thereby powering India through tough terrains.
Nobody scored more runs than Mandhana's 1362 in Women's ODIs this year, at a stellar average of 61 and strike rate of 109. BEAST MODE numbers from the vice-captain. Mandhana also ended up smashing 32 sixes in ODIs, comfortably the highest by any batter in this format, ten clear of her teammate Richa Ghosh (22).
Run-scoring had been Mandhana's forte since a few years now but the start of the 2025 ODI World Cup once again showed a familiar pattern of low scores. India also had a stuttering first half to the tournament, raising questions from the fans and pundits alike. However, Mandhana's prime form finally came to the big stage as she delivered big time in the crucial phases of the tournament.
A superb 80 against Australia was followed by a fluent 88 against England, although India lost both games. Then, in a virtual must-win game against New Zealand, the left-hander smashed a brutal 109 to lead India to a dominant victory. In the semifinal against Australia, Mandhana didn't make much, and her score of 45 in the final was also not huge but she kept giving India quick confident starts.
Mandhana also ends the year in the top-3 of the ICC batting rankings in ODIs as well as T20Is. She has an outside chance of becoming the top-ranked T20I batter as well. That, though, is not that relevant because the success she had with the bat is nothing short of unprecedented. It was also a year when Mandhana smashed the fastest-ever ODI ton for India across genders, beating Virat Kohli's long-time record.
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India had bilateral ODI series victories against Sri Lanka and England, and also won a tri-series featuring Sri Lanka and South Africa. Their only blip came in the 1-2 series loss to Australia at home, just before the World Cup. However, the scoreline doesn't show how close India were to winning all three games, and that confidence was on show during the title-winning run, few weeks later.
In T20Is, India had just three bilateral events in the year as ODIs remained the major focus. Harmanpreet Kaur's girls won all three series and Mandhana ensured a big finish to the year as India recorded their highest-ever T20I total against Sri Lanka in Thiruvananthapuram.