Indian cricketer Smriti Mandhana has earned a place in TIME magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in Sports for 2026, emerging as the sole Indian featured in the prestigious rankings.

The annual list recognises athletes, coaches, investors and advocates who are making a significant impact on the sporting world. Headlined by American basketball superstar LeBron James, the 2026 edition includes some of the biggest names in global sport, including football legend Lionel Messi, Chinese-American freestyle skier Eileen Gu, tennis sensation Carlos Alcaraz, basketball prodigy Victor Wembanyama and golfing great Rory McIlroy.

Also featured are football icon Cristiano Ronaldo, South African cricket captain Temba Bavuma, who guided his side to a historic Test series triumph in India and a World Test Championship title last year, New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson, and FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

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Mandhana, 29, who serves as vice-captain of the Indian women’s cricket team, joins this elite group of sporting personalities. In its profile of the left-handed opener from Mumbai, TIME highlighted her trailblazing achievements, noting that she became the first Indian woman to score a double century in a domestic one-day match, the first to register centuries in all three international formats, and a joint holder of the record for the most centuries in women’s international cricket with 17. The magazine observed that records continue to fall in Mandhana’s wake.

She also became the first female cricketer to score more than 1,000 runs in One-Day Internationals within a single calendar year. However, TIME noted that Mandhana takes the greatest pride in her team accomplishments. She captained Royal Challengers Bangalore to Women’s Premier League titles in 2024 and 2026 and played a key role as India’s vice-captain during their successful ICC Women’s World Cup campaign last year, finishing as the tournament’s second-highest run-scorer.

The magazine further pointed out that Mandhana set a new benchmark in 2024 for the most international runs scored by a woman across formats in a calendar year and surpassed her own record in 2025. That remarkable achievement also helped her claim the BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year award in 2025.