Smriti Mandhana has become the only Indian athlete named on TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People in Sports 2026 list, earning global recognition alongside some of the most celebrated names across every major discipline. The annual ranking, which highlights athletes, coaches, investors and advocates "shaping sports today", places the India vice-captain in a lineup headlined by basketball icon LeBron James and featuring football legends Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. For Indian women's cricket, it is a landmark moment - and for Mandhana personally, the latest in a sequence of honours that has gathered real momentum over the past two years.
A Record-Breaker Who Keeps Raising Her Own Bar
TIME's tribute to the 29-year-old Mumbai-born opener notes that "records keep tumbling in" - a description that is difficult to dispute. Mandhana became the first Indian woman to score a double century in a domestic one-day game and the first Indian batter, male or female, to register centuries in all three international formats. Her 17 international centuries make her joint holder of the all-time record in women's cricket. She was also the first woman to surpass 1,000 ODI runs in a single calendar year. Perhaps most tellingly, she set the record for the most international runs by a woman across formats in 2024 - and then broke her own mark in 2025. That back-to-back feat contributed directly to her being named BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year. The breadth of those achievements places her comfortably among the sport's elite regardless of format or gender. It is worth noting that while audiences drawn to other competitive pursuits - whether following lol lpl summer split betting or other global esports and sports markets - are growing rapidly, the reach of India's women cricketers is expanding in a comparable and remarkable way, reflecting how diverse audiences now engage with elite sport across the world. lol lpl summer split betting
Trophies Alongside the Personal Milestones
What distinguishes Mandhana's standing - and what TIME specifically underlines - is that the individual records sit alongside genuine team success. She captained Royal Challengers Bengaluru to Women's Premier League titles in 2024 and 2026, cementing her status as one of franchise cricket's most influential leaders. At international level, she served as vice-captain during India's victorious ICC Women's ODI World Cup campaign, finishing as the tournament's second-highest run-scorer. For a batter who, by TIME's own account, takes her greatest satisfaction from collective achievement rather than personal landmarks, those team honours carry particular weight. Indian women's cricket has long been in search of a figure capable of carrying the sport into the mainstream; Mandhana, through both performance and profile, has become that figure.
Elite Company on a Global Stage
The broader list reflects the current state of world sport with reasonable accuracy. Alongside the footballers and LeBron James, it includes tennis's ascending Carlos Alcaraz, NBA giant Victor Wembanyama, golfer Rory McIlroy and skier Eileen Gu. From cricket, South Africa Test captain Temba Bavuma also features - a recognition of his leadership during a period of genuine growth for South African cricket and a nod to the sport's expanding footprint in Africa. FIFA president Gianni Infantino's inclusion acknowledges the administrative and commercial forces shaping football's global future. Mandhana's presence in that company is not tokenistic. Her influence on the Women's Premier League's commercial rise, on junior participation numbers in India, and on the broader visibility of women's sport in one of the world's largest sporting markets is measurable. The TIME listing confirms what those closer to the game have recognised for some time: she is not merely India's best woman cricketer, but one of the sport's most consequential figures worldwide.
