Virat Kohli, Smriti Mandhana only Indians in SportsPro's most marketable athletes in 2024

Cricketers Virat Kohli and Smriti Mandhana ensure an Indian presence in prestigious annual list.

Indian cricketers and household names Virat Kohli and Smriti Mandhana are the only sportspersons from the Indian subcontinent to appear in the 15th edition of SportsPro’s top 50 most marketable athletes in 2024.

While Kohli is No. 27 on the list, Smriti Mandhana comes in 15 places further down at No. 42. Mandhana trails Spanish teenage football sensation Lamine Yamal, plays for La Liga side FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team.

Both cricketers are ahead of international sportspersons, including Norwegian football player and Manchester City striker Erling Haaland and Formula 1 driver Oscar Piastri, who races for Team McLaren. Kohli and Mandhana are also ahead of ATP No. #1 Jannik Sinner and WTA No. #2 Iga Swiatek in the marketability score.

Kohli is also ahead of Spanish tennis sensation Carlos Alcaraz and Dutch Formula 1 driver for Red Bull Racing, Max Verstappen.

Alcaraz is the youngest ATP World No.1 and has won four Grand Slam titles besides completing the Channel Slam — winning Wimbledon and the French Open the same year.

The Flying Dutchman, Verstappen, is Netherlands’ first Formula One world champion and has won three Formula One World Drivers’ Championship titles between 2021 and 2023.

Kohli, a mainstay of the Indian cricket team and former captain, has been a member of the teams that won the 2011 Cricket World Cup, 2013 Champions Trophy and 2024 T20 World Cup. With Kohli at the helm, India enjoyed a lengthy stay at No. 1 in Test rankings, besides snagging a first-ever series win in Australia.

In 2017, Smriti Mandhana guided India to their first ICC Women’s ODI World Cup final since 2005. In their first final in more than a decade, the Indian side lost by a whisker by just nine runs to England. Mandhana won the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year in 2018 and again in 2021.

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