The ‘Woman Cricketer’ who established her ‘Raj’ in Gentlemen’s game.
The journey from hating cricket to conquering cricket.
A few years ago, there was not much hype about women’s cricket in India. Not many people supported women’s cricket back then, but today the picture has changed drastically.
I started to follow women’s cricket from the 2016 T20 world cup which was held in India. The Indian team couldn’t make it to the knockout stage. And the performance of the team throughout the tournament was not impressive.
In the 2017 ODI world cup, India’s performance was top-notch. Indian team made it to the finals against the host England. But we lost the final by 9 runs and the dream of winning the world cup collapsed.
But that world cup performance was instrumental to give a boost to women’s cricket in India. So many woman cricketers became famous in a matter of time.
And when it comes to women’s cricket in India, the one name that comes to mind is ‘Mithali Raj’. Mithali Raj, one of the greatest cricketers, announced her retirement from all forms of international cricket on 8 June 2022.
I will take you through her 23 years of cricketing journey in this article. So sit back in the pavilion and enjoy the innings of Mithali Raj.
Start of her cricket journey
Mithali’s dreams were different, she wanted to be a Bharatnatyam dancer, but destiny had some other plans.
The young Mithali Raj like any other kid was lazy. She used to sleep till late in the morning. And that’s how she got introduced to cricket.
To break this habit of sleeping till late, her father, Dorai Raj, who was in Indian Air Force would make his daughter accompany her brother to cricket training at St. John’s Academy in Secunderabad.
She used to sit near the boundary ropes and finish her studies. And sometimes she would pick up the bat and play around.
One of the coaches at the academy was impressed by her technique and referred her to Sampath Kumar, who coached two women’s cricket teams in Secunderabad.
Sampath Kumar started training her. She began playing cricket at the age of 10. The cricket training began at 4 in the morning and would sometimes consume 6 hours a day.
All those hours of intense training paid off. At the age of 13, She was selected for the Andhra Pradesh team. She was picked among the probable players for the 1997 world cup when she was just 14.
A promising start to her career
At the age of 16, she made her debut for India in One Day Internationals in 1999 against Ireland.
In her debut match, she scored an unbeaten 114 runs. She announced her entry into international cricket with a bang.
In January 2002, she made her test debut against England in Lucknow.
In August 2002, playing in her third test match against England in Taunton, she set the then-new record for the highest individual test score of 214.
She broke the record of 209* runs scored by Karen Rolten. Her innings lasted for 598 minutes.
Ups and downs of her career
When she was about 22 years old, she was appointed captain of the Indian team.
In the 2005 Cricket World Cup, she was leading team India, which had ex-captains and senior players playing under her captaincy.
India reached the world cup finals for the first time under her captaincy in that world cup. India couldn’t win the World Cup, but Mithali Raj showed her leadership skills.
During the 2009 cricket world cup, Mithali was considering retiring from the game after the world cup. She was carrying a knee injury that was getting worse.
But things took unexpected turns. She scored runs for the team, and team India finished in third place.
She decided not to retire from the game for a reason.
The one reason that changed her mind was the live telecast of the matches for the first time, which in turn brought recognition to players and sports.
And when you are representing your country on a global stage, you expect people to acknowledge your efforts.
She represented India in six 50-over world cups, leading the team in two world cup finals in 2005 and 2017.
She became the first Indian captain (male or female) to lead the country to two world cup finals.
In the 2017 World Cup final, India lost to England by just nine runs at Lord’s Stadium. But all the players won praise for their splendid performances.
After India's phenomenal performance in the 2017 World Cup, things started to look more promising for women’s cricket in India.
Mithali Raj, during the 2017 World Cup, made a record of scoring seven consecutive half-centuries in women’s ODIs.
She scored 409 runs in the tournament, which includes three half-centuries and one century. She also won the award — Wisden Leading Women Cricketer in the World — in 2017.
Awards -
Arjuna Award in the year 2003.
Padma Shri — India’s fourth-highest civilian award- in the year 2015
Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna — India’s highest sporting honour — In the year 2021. She is the first woman cricketer and fifth cricketer to be honoured with this prestigious award.
Career stats -
Achievements -
During the third ODI against South Africa in 2021, she became the world's second women's cricketer and the first Indian woman to score 10,000 international runs.
In a career spanning 23 years, Mithali scored a world record of 10,868 international runs.
She is the highest run-scorer in ODI’s, scoring 7805 runs in 232 ODI’s — the most number of ODI matches played by a woman player — with the highest score of 125*.
She captained India in 155 ODI’s. She also holds the record of scoring the most half-centuries (64) in Women’s ODI’s.
In 2018, she became the first women cricketer to reach 2000 runs in the Women’s T20I. She played 89 T20I’s, scoring 2364 runs with the highest score of 97*.
Mithali Raj only played 12 test matches in her whole career scoring 699 runs with the highest score of 214 which led to victory over England in the Taunton test.
Mithali Raj holds the record for longest ODI career at 22 years & 274 days. Mithali Raj, surpassed Sachin Tendulkar (22 years & 19 days) to have the longest career across men’s and women’s cricket.
Conclusion
Mithali Raj has been the face and voice of Indian women’s cricket for more than two decades. The majority of the current team’s players grew up idolizing her.
Mithali Raj is one of the few women cricketers to make a mark in a predominantly male sport. She has been an inspiration to all the girls in the country.
But her dream of winning the World Cup remains unfulfilled. I hope she achieves her dream of winning the World Cup as a coach of the Indian cricket team in the future.
From being reluctant to become a cricketer to making it a great career, she has come a long way. She leaves a legacy behind with her phenomenal contribution to women’s cricket.
As an enthusiastic cricket fan, this article is dedicated to Mithali Raj’s contribution to women’s cricket.
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Thank you for reading.
