Mumbai: One of the most adept players of Indian women’s cricket team, Smriti Mandhana, made it to the International Cricket Council’s Women’s Team of the year 2016.
The announcement made on Wednesday, by International Cricket Council (ICC) made it clear that she is the lone Indian in the team. In addition to this proud moment, the 20 years old young lass also presented a complementary giveaway to Indians by becoming the second Indian after Harmanpreet Kaur to represent India in Australia’s Women’s Big Bash League, where she is currently playing for Brisbane Heat.
The 12-member team will be captained by Stafanie Taylor. She is the one, who led the West Indies to their maiden ICC Women’s World Twenty20 title in India earlier this year. The women’s Team of the Year has been added to the list of awards to acknowledge and appreciate outstanding performances by women cricketers over a 12-month period.
The players were selected on the basis of their performances during the period from September 14, 2015 to September 20, 2016; which included the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 and the ICC Women’s Championship.
During this time, Mandhana scored 264 runs in five one-day internationals at an average of 52.80. In T20 Internationals, the Indian scored 183 runs in 10 innings at 22.87.
“This is the first time that the ICC has named a women’s team of the year. Congratulations to Stafanie Taylor and the rest of her team on their selection. The quality and depth of the women’s game continues to grow year by year, with a number of outstanding performances during the voting period, the selectors must have had an exceptionally difficult task in settling on the final 12 players,” ICC chief executive David Richardson.
The team was selected by a panel consisting of Clare Connor (Chair), Mel Jones and Shubhangi Kulkarni.