Most runs in women’s T20Is: Suzie Bates finished on 4,758, and Smriti Mandhana is 220 away

For most of the last decade this list had a moving target at the top of it. It does not any more. Suzie Bates retired from international cricket after the 2026 T20 World Cup, and the 4,758 runs she finished on are now a fixed number that everybody else has to chase.

The chase is already well under way, and it is an Indian one. Smriti Mandhana sits 220 runs behind and is still playing. Harmanpreet Kaur is third. Two of the top three run-scorers in the history of women’s T20 internationals are India players, which is not something that could have been said even five years ago.

Most runs in women’s T20Is: the top 15

All figures are career totals in women’s T20 internationals, correct to 18 August 2026.

Player	Team	Mat	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100s / 50s
Suzie Bates	New Zealand	186	4,758	124*	28.83	108.60	1 / 28
Smriti Mandhana	India	171	4,538	112	30.25	125.18	1 / 35
Harmanpreet Kaur	India	202	4,216	103	30.33	110.86	1 / 18
Chamari Athapaththu	Sri Lanka	165	4,037	119*	26.38	113.33	4 / 14
Sophie Devine	New Zealand	158	3,817	105	28.69	123.20	1 / 24
Beth Mooney	Australia	125	3,783	117*	41.57	126.47	2 / 31
Danni Wyatt	England	187	3,671	124	24.47	130.50	3 / 23
Stafanie Taylor	West Indies	139	3,666	90	34.58	100.38	0 / 22
Meg Lanning	Australia	132	3,405	133*	36.61	116.37	2 / 15
Esha Oza	UAE	117	3,403	158*	34.72	119.69	5 / 14
Hayley Matthews	West Indies	127	3,382	132	29.15	115.74	3 / 21
Deandra Dottin	West Indies	154	3,228	112*	26.03	124.20	2 / 14
Nat Sciver-Brunt	England	141	3,187	82	30.64	120.53	0 / 20
Gaby Lewis	Ireland	119	3,185	119	31.22	116.41	2 / 20
Alyssa Healy	Australia	162	3,054	148*	25.45	129.79	1 / 17

Every row above is internally consistent, which is worth checking on any list of this kind: divide the runs by dismissals and you get the published average, divide runs by balls faced and you get the published strike rate, in all fifteen cases.

Suzie Bates and the record that stopped moving

Bates played 186 T20Is across nineteen years and finished on 4,758 runs — the only player in the format’s history past 4,700. She scored them at 28.83 with 28 fifties and one hundred, the unbeaten 124 against South Africa at Taunton in June 2018 that is still one of the biggest innings played in the format.

Her career ended at the 2026 T20 World Cup in England, where New Zealand’s title defence came apart in the group stage. A nine-wicket defeat to England closed it out and, with it, the international careers of Bates, Sophie Devine and Lea Tahuhu. England’s players formed a guard of honour.

The two New Zealanders sit first and fifth on this list between them, and both stopped in the same week. That is the single biggest reason the top of the table looks different now than it did a year ago.

Smriti Mandhana is 220 runs away

Mandhana has 4,538 runs from 171 matches, and the gap to Bates is 220 — around four or five good innings. She is 30 and has been an India regular since 2013, so the arithmetic is not difficult.

She would also arrive at the record having scored those runs very differently. Mandhana’s strike rate is 125.18 against Bates’s 108.60, and her 35 fifties are the most of anyone on this list — seven clear of Bates, and four clear of Beth Mooney’s 31. Nobody has been more consistently past fifty in a women’s T20I.

Harmanpreet Kaur and the 200-match mark

Harmanpreet is third on 4,216, and the number next to her name that stands out is not the runs. It is 202 matches — the only player on this list to have played 200 women’s T20Is, and 15 more than Danni Wyatt in second place on appearances.

She is also not out more often than anybody here, 42 times in 181 innings, which is what a career spent batting in the middle order at the death looks like on a spreadsheet. Her average of 30.33 is fractionally the higher of the two India players in the top 15, and the seventh-highest of the fifteen.

Beth Mooney has the only average above 40

Mooney’s 41.57 is the standout number in the table. Meg Lanning’s 36.61 is next, then Esha Oza on 34.72 and Stafanie Taylor on 34.58 — and after that the list falls away into the twenties and low thirties. Mooney has done it while scoring at 126.47, so it is not an average built on occupying the crease.

She was also the difference in the 2026 final at Lord’s, finishing on 64 from 49 balls as Australia chased down England’s 150 for a record seventh title, and ended the tournament as its leading scorer on 238. Her 31 fifties in 119 innings is the best fifty-per-innings rate of anyone here, ahead of Mandhana’s 35 in 165.

The Associate names on the list, and how to read them

Two names in the top 15 will be unfamiliar to anyone who follows only the Test nations, and they belong there.

Esha Oza of the UAE is tenth on 3,403, and she owns the most striking line in the whole table: five hundreds — more than anyone else here — a highest score of 158 not out, and not a single duck in 115 innings. Gaby Lewis of Ireland is fourteenth on 3,185 with two hundreds.

The honest caveat is that a large share of those runs came against Associate opposition, in tournaments where the bowling attacks are a long way from Australia’s or England’s. That does not make the runs less real — a T20I is a T20I, and the ICC granted the status precisely so these matches would count. But it does mean the raw totals are not comparing like with like, and a list that does not say so is not telling you very much. The same distortion turns up at the extremes of the format: the record team and individual scores both come from Argentina’s 427 for 1 against Chile in 2023, as we set out in our guide to women’s cricket records across all three formats.

Strike rates: who scored fast, and who was worth waiting for

Danni Wyatt has the fastest scoring rate of the fifteen at 130.50, just ahead of Alyssa Healy on 129.79, and she has paid for it in the most direct way available: 23 ducks, easily the most on the list, against Deandra Dottin’s 14 and Bates’s 13. High risk at the top of the order looks exactly like that when you total it up over 166 innings.

At the other end, Stafanie Taylor scored at 100.38 — the only player here under 105 — and averaged 34.58 doing it. She is also, alongside Nat Sciver-Brunt, one of only two players in the top 15 without a T20I century, despite 22 fifties and a highest score of 90.

Just outside the table, India’s Shafali Verma is 16th on 2,901 runs at a strike rate of 136.38 — the quickest of anyone with 2,900 or more in the format, and the clearest sign of how the top of the order has changed since Bates started.

How this list is put together, and one caveat worth knowing

The totals come from ESPNcricinfo’s Statsguru, filtered to women’s T20 internationals and ordered by career runs. Matches, innings, not-outs, runs, highest score, average, hundreds and fifties are complete for every player here.

Strike rate is the one column that is not. Ball-by-ball records for women’s T20Is are incomplete for some of the older careers, so the balls-faced figures for Harmanpreet Kaur, Stafanie Taylor and Deandra Dottin are flagged as partial in the source. Their strike rates in the table are therefore the best available calculation rather than a complete one. It is the same data problem that makes the six-hitting record contestable, which we cover in our list of the most sixes in women’s T20 internationals.

Where the list goes next

Four of the top 15 have stopped adding to their totals. Bates and Devine retired at the 2026 World Cup, Meg Lanning has not played a T20I since 2023 and Alyssa Healy not since 2024. The other eleven were all active in 2026.

That leaves a straightforward shape at the top. Mandhana needs 220 to go past Bates, and on current form 4,758 will not be the number for very long. Harmanpreet needs 542 and has the appearances in her to get there. Beyond those two, the only active player within 750 of the record is Chamari Athapaththu, fourth on 4,037. Everyone else on the list is chasing something further down.

The short version

• Suzie Bates leads on 4,758 runs from 186 matches and has retired, so the record is now fixed.
• Smriti Mandhana is second on 4,538, 220 behind and still playing, with 35 fifties — the most in the format.
• Harmanpreet Kaur is third on 4,216 and the only player here past 200 T20Is.
• Beth Mooney has the only average above 40 at 41.57; Meg Lanning’s 36.61 is next.
• Esha Oza of the UAE has five hundreds, more than anyone on the list, and no ducks in 115 innings.
• Danni Wyatt scores fastest at 130.50 and has the most ducks, 23.
• Stafanie Taylor and Nat Sciver-Brunt are the only two in the top 15 without a T20I hundred.

If you follow the women’s international calendar and the leagues around it, our guide to the best cricket betting sites in India compares the operators pricing them up.

Photo credit: Imago