Mithali Raj: One of the greatest women cricketers

India’s greatest woman cricketer, Mithali Raj, announced her retirement from all forms of international cricket on Wednesday. She decided to end her 23 year-old glittering career that includes 10,868 international runs in 333 matches. Mithali holds the record for highest runs in women cricket. 

She made her international debut at the age of 16 in 1999. Mithali went on to play 12 Tests, 232 ODIs and 89 T20Is. 

The 39-year-old scored 7,805 runs at an average of 50.7 in ODIs which is a world record. She also led India to victories in 89 matches in 155 ODIs, the most for any woman captain.

But, despite a glorious career and having most number of runs as woman cricketer, Mithali ends her career without an ICC trophy. 

We take a look at her career in 5 points:

THE BEGINNING

Mithali was born on December 3, 1982 in a Tamil family in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Her father Dorai Raj was in the Indian Air Force. Mithali started playing cricket at the age of 10. She also attended a cricket coaching academy with her brother during her school days.

DOMESTIC CAREER

In the domestic competition, Mithali played for the Railways. She played with star players like Purnima Rau, Anjum Chopra and Anju Jain. She has also played for Supernovas and Velocity in Women’s T20 challenge. 

INTERNATIONAL CAREER

At the age of 14 , Mithali was named in the 1997 Women’s Cricket World Cup squad but she couldn’t make it to the final 11. Mithali made her ODI debut in 1999 against Ireland. In 2001, she made her Test debut against South Africa in Lucknow.

In 2005, Mithali as the captain of the Indian team, reached the finals of the first World Cup final against Australia. But India lost that match.

In 2013, Mithali was the number one cricketer in ODI chart among women.

In 2017, Mithali again led the Indian team to the finals of World Cup where the team lost the contest by 9 runs.

In September 2019, Mithali retired for T20Is to focus on ODIs and Tests.

CAPTAIN MITHALI

As a captain, Mithali has led Indian team in 155 matches, making her the most capped leader in women’s ODIs. She holds the record for most wins (89) and most runs as captain  (5,319) also most 50-plus scores (52) as a captain in this format.

AWARDS

In 2003, Mithali was conferred with Arjuna Award and in 2015, she was conferred with Padma Shri. In 2017, she was included in BBC’s 100 women. The same year she was named as the Wisden Leading Women Cricketer in the world. In 2021, she was awarded with Khel Ratna.