Smriti Mandhana picks her favourite footballer between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo

Smriti Mandhana continues to shine at the international stage. The batting mainstay of the women’s team has not looked back since starring for India in the 2017 World Cup. It was the tournament that made Mandhana a household name in India and since then she has only gone from strength to strength with each passing day.

She recently scored a cracking 74 to help India beat West Indies and win the three-match ODI series. Her form has continued in the ongoing five-match T20I series too. In the first two games, she has scored 67 and 30 not out as India won both the teams to take 2-0 lead. India now need to win one of the remaining three games to end the tour of West Indies on a stunning note.

Last week, she also had her name registered in the record books after becoming the second-fastest Indian to score 2,000 runs in one-day internationals. She had achieved the record during her 74-run knock in the third ODI. She took 51 innings to reach the 2,000-ODI run mark becoming the third-fastest woman after Belinda Clark and Meg Lanning to achieve the milestone.

In her 51-ODI career so far, Mandhana has scored 2,025 runs at an average of 43.08. She has scored four centuries and 17 fifties. With the T20 World Cup lined up next year, India will be desperate to see Mandhana firing on all cylinders.

Smriti Mandhana’s favourite footballer

The India star, meanwhile, recently interacted with her fans on Instagram. The opener held a question and answer session and made sure to respond to most of the questions asked by her followers. One of her fans asked her to pick one between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The debate over who is better between Messi and Ronaldo has been a never-ending one.

Fans across the world have been debating over the topic for nearly a decade but have not come to a conclusion yet. And the way Messi and Ronaldo are playing at the moment, it would be not very surprising if the debate never ends. However, Mandhana is clear about who is better among the two as she picked Ronaldo over Messi.

Here’s her Instagram story