After making waves in Australia’s Big Bash League, Smriti Mandhana will become the first Indian to play in England’s Kia Super League. She has been bought by last year’s champion Western Strom.
“I am very excited to be playing for the Kia Super League champions. To be the first Indian player to appear in the tournament is a real honour and I hope that I can help Western Storm to more success,” said Mandhana.
“We are really excited that Smriti will be joining us. She is one of the brightest young talents in the game at the moment. Although she is still young, she has a great deal of experience of the game at the highest level and we believe that she will prove to be an excellent signing,” Strom’s head coach, Trevor Griffin, praising the youngster.
When it comes to plying the trade in foreign leagues, Madhana has been leading the way along with India’s T20 captain Harmanpreet Kaur. The duo rewrote history when they became a part of the Big Bash League in Australia in 2017.
In England too, Harmanpreet would have piped her teammate in becoming the first from her country but an injury ruled her out from taking the field for Surrey last season.
Mandhana has had an impressive T20 records and her experience will be instrumental in the tournament. She has scored 826 runs in 40 matches with a strike rate of 112.84.