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Smriti Mandhana has received the honour of BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year 2025, and it is an honour of great magnitude to her because it is in the year of the year with regard to women and cricket in India. A special jury of tennis star Leander Paes, Paralympic medalist Deepa Malik and world championship long jumper Anju Bobby George picked the 29 year old left hand opener and a vice-captain of the Indian women team in cricketing.

The award was awarded on 16 February, 2026 and goes in honour of Mandhana who has played a significant part in the Indian historic victory in the 2025 ICC Women world cup. She scored 434 runs in the tournament as the vice-captain and was a great performer in the journey, giving consistent match winning performances due to her graceful stroke and ability to resist under pressure. Her leadership and batting played a vital role in the campaign of India that culminated into a memorable final victory.

Mandhana is also the shining star in the Women premier league (WPL) with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) winning back to back titles with their explosive batting and they remain cool headed captain Mandhana at the crucial moments. Her reliability in the various formats, becoming the first Indian woman to score centuries in Test, ODI, and T20I in June 2025 edges her to the status of one of the best in the game.

When Mandhana accepted the award in a video message (when she was touring Australia), she added: Thank you BBC, this honour, 2025 was really a great year in women's cricket, in particular near the end with the World Cup. I am glad I was able to contribute and make India win matches. She was not present when her name was called to take the trophy, which was received by her mother, Smita Mandhana, who urged parents to do everything they could to help their daughters in sports.

She was hastily named the Queen of Cricket by the fans and the lovers of cricket with good cause, and the social media was filled with compliments praising her beauty, steadiness and influence on young girls to pick up the sport. It was also a golden period in the life of the Indian women in cricket and with the victory in the world cup, the visibility and participation of the women increased throughout the country.

Mandhana competed well with Harmanpreet Kaur (India captain), chess prodigy Divya Deshmukh, hurdler Jyothi Yarraji, and shooter Suruchi Singh. The now-in-its-several-editions BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year award has made its mark in highlighting trailblazing women in sports in India and the contribution they make towards gender equality in Indian sport.

With the world set to challenge India in the future, the predicted recognition of Mandhana once again establishes her as one of the all-time greats, graceful, ruthless, and fully worthy of the award.