Smriti Mandhana, born on July 18, 1996, in Mumbai, Maharashtra, to Shrinivas and Smita Mandhana in a Marwari Hindu family, relocated to Madhavnagar, Sangli, at age two, where she drew inspiration from her elder brother Shravan—a fellow cricketer who later became a bank manager—to pursue the sport, making her domestic debut for Maharashtra's Under-15 team at just nine years old and the Under-19 side by 11, before exploding onto the scene with a stunning 155 on senior debut against Saurashtra in 2013 and an unbeaten 224 off 150 balls in an Under-19 tournament versus Gujarat later that year using a bat gifted by Rahul Dravid.