Smriti Mandhana leads run-scoring charts heading into ICC Women's World Cup 2025 semi-finals

One of the biggest driving factors behind India's path to the semi-final has been the form of India's openers, Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal. The duo has been at the heart of India’s batting exploits throughout the tournament and with Pratika ruled out of the World Cup due to injury, a lot of the onus will be on Smriti to majorly counter the Australian attack - and Indian cricket fans will hope she rides on the memories of a glorious century she scored against them the last time these two teams met in this competition.

Mandhana leads the chart of run-scorers with 365 runs from seven matches at a stunning average of 60.83. She stayed unbeaten in the clash against Bangladesh where India were well en route to another dominating victory before rain played spoilsport. Apart from her scintillating average, her breezy strike rate of 102.52 has been another highlight of her heroic exploits in the tournament.

Rawal, with 308 runs is second on the list and was brilliant throughout the World Cup, with an average of 51.33 to her name and will leave a big void at the top of the order. However, apart from Smriti and Pratika, India have had three fine options in Richa Ghosh, Harleen Deol and Harmanpreet Kaur who managed to rack up 175, 169 and 151 runs respectively. Add to that Jemimah Rodrigues' quick-fire half-century against New Zealand, the Women in Blue have the firepower in the batting unit to trouble the Aussies.

When Australia comes knocking, India will have to batten up their hatches and throw everything that they have in their arsenal. With Smriti at the helm, the fans might expect emulations of the numbers that the talented southpaw has already knitted together.