Key Highlight
- The women’s Team India side player Mithali Raj bids adieu from all forms of International Cricket.
Mithali Raj, a famous name in Indian Cricket history will be remembered forever till the cricket exists. The 39-year-old player who hails from the pink city of India after serving 23 years to the game of women’s cricket has finally announced her retirement from all forms of cricket.
Mithali, who as women’s Indian team player and captain has gone through all rough terrains of her career and had never looked back. While saying a final goodbye to the cricketing world, Mithali wrote,
I set out as a little girl on the journey to wear the India blues as representing our country in the highest honour. The journey was full of highs & lows
Mithali Raj, a world-class cricketer. She has been playing cricket for 23 years, and the time she spent in the game has been very satisfying, enjoyable and challenging but as she said, now was the perfect time for her to step down and giving chance for the budding talents inside the country to bloom
Let’s look upon the History, Records and Achievements by Mithali Raj.
History
- 3rd December, 1982 born; Mithali started her first cricketing career from 1999 playing for the railways, Air India and fewer other domestic competition
- Mithali also started her ODI career in the year 1999 and played her first ODI match against the team Ireland at Milton Keynes
- Mithali Raj made her test debut in the year 2002 playing against South Africa at Lucknow and 30th September 2021 was the last test she was seen in.
- Mithali Started her T20I debut from the year 2016 playing against England and was seen playing her last T20I against England only.
- Other than being part of the Indian National team, Mitahli also played for franchises like Supernovas (2018) and Velocity (2019-20)
Records & Achievements
- In her third test against Australia in 2002, the 19-year-old Mithali back then, broke the record of world’s highest test debut score made by Karen Rolton of 209* with new score of 214 runs
- In 2005, Mithali led her team to the finals of the Women’s Cricket World Cup
- In 2006, she led the women’s India team to win the first ever Asia Cup including a test and a series against England the same year.
- In 2013, Mithali during the women’s world cup tournament was the No.1 cricketer of the ODI format although, the team lost the WC against Australia
- In 2017, she was the first women cricketer ever to score 6000 runs
- Mithali is the first ever Indian and the fifth of all woman cricketers to score more than 1000 world cup runs
- With most played matches in a row, Mithali holds the record of having the maximum of 109
- As leading run scorer in all three formats of the Indian Cricketing history, she is also nicknamed as the “Lady Tendulkar” of women’s cricket
- As a women cricketet she has scored 10868 runs in the international cricket, 7805 runs in ODI and 2364 runs in T20I
- She played in total for 6 World Cup finals including 2 leading to finals
Awards
- Mithali is an Arjuna Award holder from 2003
- In 2015, she was awarded with the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri
- In 2017, she was given the “Youth Sports Icon of excellence award”
- In 2017, she was presented as the sportsperson of the year
- In 2017, she received the Wisden leading Women award
- In the year 20121, she was also awarded with the highest sporting honour of India award – Khel Ratna.
Mithali Raj grew up in a typical Tamil family, but she was born in the Red Fort of the Pink City of Rajasthan, India. At the age of 10, she started competing in small events in her school and college, but she wanted to focus on cricket. She had become more aggressive related to cricket with her brother from her school days only.
How Twitter reacted on the retirement news of Mithali Raj?
All big to small personnel from cricketing and non-cricketing world came in praise the cricketers for the years of dedication and efforts she put.
BCCI wrote,
“Your contribution to Indian Cricket has been phenomenal. Congratulations @M_Raj03 on an amazing career. You leave behind a rich legacy”
The 36-year veteran from the men’s cricket team, Dinesh Karthik wrote,
“In India, the name Mithali Raj has been synonymous to women’s cricket. You have been an inspiration to millions all over the world. My best wishes to you for your future endeavours @M_Raj03”
The test legend VVS Laxman wrote,
“To play for India is a dream a very few fulfil and to be able represent the nation for 23 years is just amazing. You have been a pillar to Women’s Cricket in India and have shaped the lives of many young girls. Many congratulations on a phenomenal career @M_Raj03”
The BCCI secretary, Jay Shah Wrote,
“A wonderful career comes to an end! Thank you @M_Raj03 for your immense contribution to Indian cricket. Your leadership on the field has brought much glory to the National women’s team. Congratulations for an illustrious innings on the field and best wishes for your next innings!”
After Mithali’s retirement news, twitter and other social media handles, has been flooded with news of her all over. The downpour of congratulatory messages for the retired player is so much that it cannot be described at least in this article.
Best Wishes to Mithali Raj for her second innings!!
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