India women’s team opener Smriti Mandhana has become the first Indian cricketer to be featuring in England’s Kia Super League. She has been signed by KSL franchise Western Storm for the 2018 season and Mandhana will join them as the second overseas player. The 21-year-old has been a part of the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) as well. She will play this year’s KSL alongside Anya Shrubsole, Heather Knight and many other star players.

Smriti has amassed around 826 runs with the highest score of 76 in the 40 T20 Internationals. She has also scored 1464 runs in 41 ODIs at an average of 37.53 with the highest score of 135. In addition to this, she recently was the captain of the IPL trailblazers team in the women’s IPL exhibition match against IPL Supernovas. However, her team ended up on the losing side.

After securing the contract, the team head coach Trevor Griffin said that the team management is really looking forward to including  Smriti in the team and termed her as the brightest young talents in the modern day cricket. He went on to add that she will prove to be an excellent signing for the team.

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Talking about Mandhana further, Griffin said, “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.”

Smriti was very excited after accepting the offer and termed it as a real honor. She said, “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 honor and I hope that I can help Western Storm to more success.”