It wasn’t long ago that Jemimah Rodrigues found herself at the center of an online smear campaign – trolled and threatened for her faith. Today, he stands at the heart of India’s World Cup triumph, the team’s most celebrated face on social media.
After India lifted the ICC Women’s World Cuphis players gained new followers — but none more so than Jemimah. She has added almost 13 thousand followers on Instagram and remains the most searched female cricketer on Google Trends. The increase was not limited to her alone: after the historic win, Smriti Mandhana gained around 5 million followers, while captain Harmanpreet Kaur added about 2 million.
The top five female cricketers in terms of online popularity were Jemimah Rodrigues, Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma and Radha Yadav, according to a social media analysis by the OSINT India Today team.
The ICC Women’s World Cup started on 30 September. Google Trends data shows little public interest in the individual players or the tournament itself until the semi-finals, when India beat Australia to book their place in the final. Interest grew as fans rallied behind the team’s exceptional performance. Data reveals spikes in searches for most players around October 30 (semi-finals) and November 2 (World Cup final).
Overall, Smriti Mandhana continues to dominate the followers game on Instagram with 1.3 million followers, followed by Jemimah Rodrigues with 29 lakh, Harmanpreet Kaur with 25 lakh, Shafali Verma with 6.87 lakh and Deepti Sharma with 5.61 lakh.
Jemimah was the only player to gain nearly 13 million new fans in the last week. The surge in her viewership can be attributed to how deeply her story resonated with people as it was shared and amplified by multiple sites. Reels of her post-match interview, where she talked about her struggle with anxiety, went viral. A wave of fan accounts soon appeared in her name as she became an icon for a generation struggling with anxiety and mental health issues.
For the uninitiated, online trolls targeted her in a smear campaign last year because of her Christian faith. It started after Mumbai’s Khar Gymkhana canceled her membership when some members protested against her father Ivan using the premises for “religious activities”. None of the claims were ever substantiated.
Talkwalker’s analysis of X data shows that Indian women’s team captain Harmanpreet Kaur led online conversations with over 70,000 mentions. Deepti Sharma followed with around 60,000 contributions after scoring 215 runs and taking 22 wickets to win the Player of the Tournament title. Shafali Verma, who is 21, was widely praised for her 87 off 78 balls in the final, an amazing performance for a late replacement for an injured player.
– The end
Published on:
November 3, 2025
