Ranking India women’s Top 5 performers in 2024 ft. Smriti Mandhana

For the Indian women’s cricket team, the year 2024 ended on a high note as they beat the West Indies in their home T20I and ODI series. Although they suffered a setback in the T20I series, losing the second match, they eventually managed to win the three-match series.

The year saw several highs and lows, for the players and the team as a whole. While India posted the highest team total in Test cricket, marking a new high in the red-ball format, they failed to make it to the top four of the Women’s T20 World Cup, marking a disappointing low.

Apart from the team’s achievements, many players achieved personal milestones and added new feathers to their respective caps. Sneh Rana and Shafali Verma, for example, were the top performers in the longest format of the game, which is hardly played by women worldwide.

Many players impressed on the field with their top performances. Here’s ranking the top five Indian women’s performers of 2024:

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#5 Jemimah Rodrigues

Jemimah Rodrigues was a regular on the Indian side, across all three formats of the game- Tests, ODIs, and T20Is. In the only Test played by her in 2024, she scored her third half-century, making it three fifties in as many career matches so far.

In 13 ODIs, Rodrigues scored 329 runs, with her best knock of the year coming against the Windies in the three-match series that was played in Vadodara’s newly opened stadium. In the second ODI, Jemimah played a 52-run knock, contributing to India’s humungous tally.

In 18 T20Is, Rodrigues finished with 344 runs, with her highest score of 73 also coming against West Indies in the recent three-match home series in Mumbai. With that, she takes up the fifth spot in our rankings.

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#4 Radha Yadav

Radha Yadav was a part of 17 T20Is and six ODIs in 2024, picking up 29 and seven wickets, respectively. Though she didn’t feature in many ODIs, her performances in the shortest format shone bright.

In the 20-over format, the 24-year-old all-rounder registered some noteworthy performances, while also recording her second-best bowling figures of 4/29 against the West Indies in front of her home crowd in Vadodara.

Radha was also a part of India’s T20 World Cup squad but played only one game as she was called up as a last-minute replacement. She took Asha Sobhana’s place in India’s XI as the latter suffered an injury after the toss.

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#3 Renuka Singh Thakur

Renuka Thakur was phenomenal across Tests, ODIs, and T20Is this year. Though she didn’t pick a wicket in the one-off Test against South Africa, she kept the batters in check and did not concede many runs.

While she missed a few international games owing to injury concerns, India were dependent on her skills with the new ball in the games that she played. The 28-year-old picked up 19 wickets in as many T20Is in 2024, with her best of 3/10 this year coming against Bangladesh.

Before bidding farewell to the year, Renuka Thakur put up phenomenal performances in the recently concluded home series against West Indies. In the ODI series opener, Renuka picked up her maiden five-wicket haul, registering her career-best figures of 5/29.

She backed it up with 1/41 and 4/29 in the following two matches, finishing with 10 wickets in three matches and thereby winning the Player of the Series award.

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#2 Deepti Sharma

This year will go down as a memorable year for Indian all-rounder Deepti Sharma as she recorded the best bowling figures of her career in the ODI format. In her last international match of the year, she picked up a six-wicket haul, making her the second player to claim six wickets twice in ODIs after South Africa’s Sune Luus.

Deepti also finished as the leading wicket-taker in Women’s ODIs, with her tally reading 24. She bettered her own record of most wickets in a calendar year, having picked up 22 wickets in 2017 and 2022.

Having dominated the ODI format of the game, Deepti’s heroics in the T20I format are also worthy of appreciation. She picked up 28 wickets in 23 matches and 115 runs in seven innings of those matches.

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#1 Smriti Mandhana

Indian vice-captain Smriti Mandhana owned 2024, making it one of her finest years in international cricket. She added several feathers to her already illustrious cap, breaking many records and also registering some new ones.

Mandhana claimed the record of hitting the most ODI centuries in a calendar year, reaching the three-figure mark four times in 2024. She hit two consecutive centuries against South Africa, one against New Zealand in October, and her most recent against Australia on Aussie soil.

She also broke former India skipper Mithali Raj’s record of scoring the most runs in a bilateral T20I series, compiling 193 runs in three matches, including three fifties. Mandhana will also finish the year with the most runs in a calendar year in Women’s T20Is, with 763 runs to her name from 21 innings of 23 matches.