Cricket
Cricket
How Smriti Mandhana stays fit for her sport
Discover the ace cricketer’s fitness routines, the areas of fitness she considers her strongest, and how fitness has a direct impact on her game.
Smriti Mandhana is one of the best batters in the history of women’s cricket.
Her dedication to the sport and to her fitness saw her rise to the top of the game, and she has stayed there ever since she made her debut for India.
She has often spoken about how important fitness has been for her game and helped her take it to the next level. Her personal motto with all training sessions has been to enjoy them even if they are difficult, whether they are net sessions or running for endurance.
Here she describes in detail how she views fitness as part of her sporting career, what her regular fitness routines are like, and what targets she has set for herself.
Smriti Mandhana
© Ali Bharmal
How fitness impacts cricket
Smriti sees a clear difference in how the game used to be played to how it is played now.
“A few years ago, cricket was mainly a skill-based sport, but now with the T20 format being popular, it is a fast-paced game,” says Smriti. “Even in one-day cricket we have to constantly score and chase. The formats are moving pretty fast, so it’s even more important to work a lot on fitness as much as skills.
“Earlier it was 70% skill and 30% fitness, but now it's 70% fitness and 30% skill. So that’s a big impact.”
Smriti Mandhana
© Ali Bharmal
Direct impact of fitness for Smriti
She sees two types of fitness affecting specific aspects of her game; these are muscle endurance and cardio (running).
“I think for me, fielding and running between the wickets – these two aspects of the game – would not work well for me if I wasn’t constantly working on my fitness,” says Smriti.
When Smriti kicked fitness into high gear
Smriti was about 18-19 years old when she sustained her first major injury. It kept her off the field for six months while she recuperated and steeled her resolve to make sure she always stays fit.
“It was when I got injured, that's when I started taking fitness seriously. I used to do functional training before that. But once I got injured and went through the rehabilitation phase, I realized I didn’t want to go through anything like that again. So I started working a lot on fitness; especially my strength and running,” she says.
Smriti’s personal fitness objective
“I want to play every single match and I want to be 100% fit in each match. I don’t want to play with any niggles. I want my body to feel fresh from the first ball I face to the last; I don’t want fatigue to set in at any point,” says Smriti.
Smriti Mandhana
© Ali Bharmal
Types of fitness that Smriti focuses
While she is well-known for her batting talents, Smriti says she puts in a lot more work into fitness to improve her fielding ability.
“I think in fielding, there is a huge impact of fitness. For fielding inside the circle, you need agility. And for fielding outside the circle, you need to be able to run fast to cut the angles. For those, I need to do a lot of fitness that is specifically designed for fielding. When I do fielding fitness training, very often I see direct results; if I do the training consistently, in 20-30 days I see that I am able to move quicker or cut a ball that I may not have been able to do earlier,” she says.
“In batting, there is a lot of technique involved. Even if I do a lot of strength training, if I don’t time the ball properly, the shot won’t work. But fielding and running between the wickets, these are two aspects of the game where I can actually say to myself, ‘Oh yes, I worked on these things in fitness and I’ve seen a positive impact in the game.’ I see direct results,” she says.
Smriti’s fitness strengths and weaknesses
Muscle strength is one of Smriti’s strong points in fitness. And what she is weak in, she works hard to improve.
“I focus a little bit more on endurance because that's my weak point. With the amount of cricket we play, we need a lot of endurance to make sure our muscles don’t tire out. I’m not great at it so I consider it very important to make sure I always do my endurance running and endurance muscle training,” she says.
Smriti Mandhana
© Ali Bharmal
Smriti’s fitness regime
Cricketers usually build their body up in pre-season and focus on skills while tournaments are ongoing. Smriti follows a similar mentality and works with her fitness trainers before a season begins.
“In pre-season, I will usually do a cardio session and a strength training session every day. It would usually be cardio in the morning for half-an-hour and then a strength training session in the afternoon or evening for one-and-half-hour. This is for five days a week. And then two days would be swimming and other recovery sessions,” she reveals.
Smriti’s most favourite and least favourite workouts
Easy enough to see, Smriti’s favourite workouts are directly tied into her aspects of fitness where she is strongest and weakest.
“I love strength training. I think I could do strength every day of the week,” Smriti says.
“My least favourite is anything to do with running. I try to avoid it, but I know I can’t avoid it. It’s funny because I never get nervous before a match, but if I know I have to wake up tomorrow and go running, I will be nervous before the run,” she says.
Smriti Mandhana
© Ali Bharmal
Aspects of mental fitness
While many cricketers swear by visualization before a match, Smriti prefers to keep her mind clear.
“I do meditation before a match. I do 10-15 minutes of guided mediation. I can never sit quietly in one spot, so that's why I do guided meditation and try to calm myself down,” she says.
“I also practice a bit of yoga. I do Surya Namaskar every day. In fact I use Surya Namaskar as part of my stretching routine before gym sessions,” she adds.
Smriti’s New Year fitness resolution
Going into 2023, Smriti has a simple fitness target in mind.
“My resolution is to be physically and mentally fresh for my sport, especially in situations where endurance is needed. For example, when I’m batting with 70-80 runs on the board, I want to be fresh. My fitness resolution every year is to just improve by 7-8%. So that’s my 2023 resolution as well – improve my fitness by 7-8%,” says Smriti.
