Here's what Smriti Mandhana thinks about being compared with Virat Kohli

Smriti Mandhana tries to keep herself away from any comparison with Virat Kohli or with anyone else. However, the 24-year-old cricketer aspires to become as big a match-winner as Kohli is.

Smriti Mandhana continues to be one of the most consistent players in the Indian women cricket team and her breakthrough came in October 2013 when she became the first Indian woman to achieve a double-hundred in a one-day game.

Smriti Mandhana, playing for Maharashtra against Gujarat, scored an unbeaten 224 off 150 balls in the West Zone Under-19 Tournament, at the Alembic Cricket Ground in Vadodara. She is also often compared with Virat Kohli.

But Smriti Mandhana tries to keep herself away from any comparison with Virat Kohli or with anyone else. However, the 24-year-old cricketer aspires to become as big a match-winner as Kohli is.

“I am happy being Smriti Mandhana of women’s team but the kind of batting he (Virat Kohli) does and the way he wins matches for India, It’s very inspirational. I would try and take the way he finishes the games. I would love doing that for India. It’s unrealistic to have the kind of consistency he has,” Smriti Mandhana said in an exclusive interview with Indian Express.

Smriti Mandhana said that playing for India was the dream of her family more than that of herself. She said that she started copying the batting style of her brother Shravan Mandhana. The young batswoman said, “I used to copy him (Shravan Mandhana) and bat with him. That’s how it all began. I chose cricket as my career when I was 15 or 16 when I scored a century for Maharashtra. More than my dream it was my family’s dream that I play for India and they always supported me.”

In January 2020, Smriti Mandhana was named in India's squad for the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia. In May last year, she won the International Woman Cricketer of the Year awards at CEAT International Cricket Awards 2019. In November 2019, during the series against the West Indies, she became the third-fastest cricketer, in terms of innings, to score 2,000 runs in WODIs, doing so in her 51st innings.