Captain Smriti Mandhana's rise to fame

It has been a difficult first year in the WPL for her and her team, RCB. But they are now serious contenders

In August of last year, Smriti Mandhana made the decision to play domestic cricket for Maharashtra and skip the WBBL 2023-24 season, which overlapped with the Senior Women's T20 Trophy. Following the twin home series against England and Australia, which included two Tests, she returned to the domestic grind as the captain of West Zone for the Senior Women's Inter-Zonal One Day Trophy.

Mandhana performed exceptionally well in both competitions, ranking among the top ten run-getters and averaging around 50. However, her biggest gain was the opportunity to play alongside and against some of India's domestic players.

This allowed her to become familiar with their skillsets and learn how to contain players such as Yastika Bhatia, S Sajana, and D Hemalatha. She also gained insight into how to counter players like SB Keerthana, Tanuja Kanwar, and Arundhati Reddy. Through this experience, she was able to connect with the vast pool of local talent waiting for an opportunity.

After finishing fourth in the inaugural season of the Women's Premier League, Royal Challengers Bangalore are now close to winning the trophy in their second attempt. They will face Delhi Capitals, who have reached the title match for the second year in a row. One of these teams will make history by winning a major franchise T20 trophy, something neither of their men's teams have achieved before.

Throughout this WPL, we have seen a different side of Mandhana, especially on the eve of the final. She appeared cheerful during the trophy photoshoot with her counterpart Meg Lanning. She remained composed as she took her seat next to Lanning in front of the microphone during the press conference. While the cameras were being set up, they exchanged a few words and shared some smiles. The next 15 minutes flew by.

The close finish in the Eliminator against Mumbai Indians on Friday elicited a range of emotions from the RCB captain. She threw her head back with hands on her face when Richa Ghosh missed a stumping chance of Harmanpreet Kaur, and later embraced her teammates in a warm hug after their five-run victory. Mandhana allowed herself to experience these emotions, despite acknowledging that a captain should maintain a more serious demeanour:

"After winning, we had a bit of a celebration, because sometimes however much you want to control emotions, they come out. I am happy we have experienced something like this - for me personally, too. It is good sometimes to express these feelings; it only gives this group more confidence."

Mandhana's initiation to captaincy in the WPL was tough. RCB lost their first five matches last season and were not in the playoff equation. This time around, although they had to win their final league game to secure a place or risk going down to net run-rate, they have looked more threatening. Even Lanning is noticing.

When asked how she prepares for Mandhana, the captain, Lanning was interrupted by Mandhana herself, who jokingly asked if Lanning would be bowling to her.

Mandhana remembered how a conversation with Lanning had aided her after Capitals defeated RCB with two balls remaining, chasing down a total of 151 at DY Patil Stadium last year.