Cricketer Smriti Mandhana is the sole Indian in TIME magazine’s list of this year’s 100 most important figures in sports.
The 100 Most Influential those in Sports 2026 list from TIME includes athletes, coaches, supporters, and investors who are “people shaping sports today.”
Superstars from the sports world, including football great Lionel Messi, Chinese-American skier Eileen Gu, tennis player Carlos Alcaraz, basketball player Victor Wembanyama, and renowned golfer Rory McIlroy, are on the list, which is headed by American basketball legend LeBron James.
Other notable figures on the list include FIFA president Gianni Infantino, basketball player Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks, South African cricket captain Temba Bavuma, who last year guided his team to a historic Test series victory in India and victory in the World Test Championship (WTC), and another football legend, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Mandhana, a 29-year-old member of the exclusive club, is the vice-captain of the Indian women’s national team.
The Mumbai-born left-handed opening batsman is the “first Indian woman to score a double century in a domestic one-day game, the first to score a century in all three international formats, and is a joint holder of the most international women’s cricket centuries with 17,” according to TIME’s profile of Mandhana, which also mentioned that the “records keep tumbling in” for Mandhana.
Additionally, she is the first female player to reach 1,000 one-day international runs in a single calendar year.
“But Mandhana is proudest of the team honors she is also accumulating. She captained the Royal Challengers Bangalore to the 2024 and 2026 Women’s Premier League titles and was vice captain for India’s triumph at last year’s ICC Women’s World Cup, scoring the second-most runs in the tournament,” TIME said.
She broke her own record last year, “a feat that contributed to her being crowned BBC Indian Sportswoman of 2025.” She had previously held the record for most international runs across formats by a woman in 2024.
