Smriti Mandhana becomes the first Indian player to appear in England's KSL

India women’s team opener Smriti Mandhana has become the first Indian cricketer to appear in the England Kia Super League. Her new team in the KSL will be 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. She will play this year’s KSL alongside Anya Shrubsole, Heather Knight and many other stars.

Smriti has scored over 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 captained the IPL trailblazers team in the women’s IPL exhibition game against IPL Supernovas. However, her team ended up on the losing side.

After securing her signing, the team head coach Trevor Griffin said that the team management is really excited with the inclusion of Smriti in the team and termed her as the brightest young talents in the current game. He went on to add that she will prove to be an excellent signing for the team.

“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,” Griffin said.

Smriti reacts

Smriti was very excited after accepting the offer and termed it as a real honour. She is eager to take her new team to more success, “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,” she said.

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