Smriti Mandhana's First Major Statement On Her First Public Appearance: 'I Don't Complicate My Life With Overthinking'

(MENAFN- Live Mint) Smriti Mandhana attended the Amazon Smbhav Summit 2025 in New Delhi. This was her first major public appearance after calling off her wedding with Palash Muchhal.

The Team India vice captain spoke about her long career, focus and how cricket helped her deal with life's challenges. She spoke as one of the featured sports icons at the event.

Smriti Mandhana shared the stage with World Cup-winning captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma, Player of the Tournament in ICC Women's ODI World Cup 2025. The event aims to inspire MSMEs with lessons from the sports world.

Also Read | Palash quietly takes down proposal, World Cup celebration video with Smriti

"I don't think I love anything more than cricket. Wearing that Indian jersey is the motivation that drives us. You keep all your problems aside, and that thought alone helps you focus on life,” Mandhana said at the event.

“As a kid, the madness for batting was always there. No one understood it, but in my mind, I always wanted to be called a world champion," she said.

“I have always been a very simple person. I don't complicate my life with overthinking. And, one thing I believe is that, if you put a lot of work behind the scenes, because what happens on the ground, everyone looks at it and judges on that, but what I judge myself or the team is the work which we put behind the scenes,” Mandhana added.

“I really pride myself to do that work day in, day out, even if I'm feeling good about things or bad about things, whatever it is, I think, if you put that work behind, and when you go out to bat, you're just very confident about what's going to happen,” she added.

Also Read | Smriti Mandhana, Palash Muchhal call off wedding: Tracing their 6-year journey

She also mentioned that, in the last two years, the work ethic had changed in Team India. The ace cricketer credits that change for winning the World Cup.

“You could see a different shift for all of them. They all had a game plan of how they want their next two years to look like, and that's why we got the results,” she added.

Smriti Mandhana's wedding: What happened?

Smriti Mandhana's wedding was first postponed after her father had reportedly suffered a heart-related medical emergency. Palash Muchhal was also briefly hospitalised.

Soon after, online rumours about Palash cheating on Smriti started to grow. Palash and his family denied any infidelity and warned of legal action.

Also Read | Palash Muchhal threatens legal action 'against false, defamatory content'

Fans then noticed Smriti had removed marriage proposal posts. Still, Palash's family continued to claim that the wedding would take place after Smriti's father's recovery.

Later, Smriti confirmed that the wedding had been called off. She asked for privacy so she could focus on cricket.

Palash later said he too had“decided to move on”. Then, both unfollowed each other on Instagram.

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