Smriti Mandhana named in TIME's 100 Most Influential People in Sports 2026

Exam-focused facts from the 17 June 2026 current affairs briefing.

Key facts

Smriti Mandhana is the only Indian athlete featured in TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People in Sports 2026.
She has been placed in the 'Titans' category alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, Erling Haaland, and Temba Bavuma.
Mandhana is the first Indian woman to score a double century in a domestic one-day match and the first Indian batter to register centuries in all three international formats.
She shares the record for the most centuries in women's international cricket with 17 hundreds and was the first woman to cross 1,000 One Day International (ODI) runs in a calendar year.
She led Royal Challengers Bengaluru to Women's Premier League (WPL) titles in 2024 and 2026.
As India's vice-captain, she was the second-highest run-scorer during the International Cricket Council (ICC) Women's ODI World Cup in 2025.
She received the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Indian Sportswoman of the Year award for her international run tallies in 2024 and 2025.