Smriti Mandhana made history this week by becoming the most expensive player in women's cricket.

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Indian female cricketer Smriti Mandhana made a history by becoming the most expensive player in women's cricket. In a player auction for the inaugural Women's Premier League (WPL), Royal Challengers Bangalore bought her for a staggering $413,000 (£340,000). She lead the team in 23-day competition that kicks off on 4 March in Mumbai. Mandhana, who opens the batting for India. Madhana has a combined 6,049 runs from her 193 international appearances across the three formats, including five hundreds in one-day international and a Test century. Widely considered a prodigy, she became the first Indian woman to hit a double century in under-19 cricket, representing Maharashtra, as a 17-year-old. She has played in the Kia Super League, The Hundred in the UK and the Women's Big Bash League in Australia.

Anant Tambwekar, a former cricketer, has worked with her father Shravan Mandhana, her father brought her to him as a 12-year-old. Mandhana's accomplishments in her decade-long international career have been impressive, especially since the 2017 ODI World Cup in England, where she played a pivotal role in India's breakout campaign. In February 2019, she topped the ICC Rankings for batters in T20s for the first time. She is the only woman other than Australia allrounder Ellyse Perry, whom she'll share the dressing room with at the WPL, to be named the ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year more than once. Last year, Mandhana dominated the run charts in T20s among players from full member nations and was named on both the ICC ODI and T20 Teams of the Year.

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She also had a Player-of-the-Match-winning 32-ball 61 at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games semi-final against hosts England. Her other notable performances from last year include an unbeaten half-century in the final of India's victorious Asia Cup Campaign and a pulsating 49-ball 79 in the second T20 against Australia in Navi Mumbai. Off the field, she has brand associations with high-profile clients like Red Bull and Nike and has appeared on adverts with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh and and cricket icon MS Dhoni. She is one of India's most popular female athletes on social media and could become the superstar female cricketer that the women's game in India is yet to see.