The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), on the 19th of August, announced India’s squad for the series against England that’s scheduled to be played in September. The squad named featured veteran, Jhulan Goswami who’s returning to the side for her farewell series after missing out on India’s tour of Sri Lanka.
39-year-old, Jhulan Goswami’s last appearance in national colours was in March in New Zealand during the World Cup games. In India’s buildup series to the Commonwealth Games, the one against Sri Lanka too didn’t feature the pace veteran.
Jhulan Goswami now has been picked to tour England in the side’s upcoming series and a top BCCI official has said that the 3rd ODI at Lord’s ‘will be her last.’ As reported in The Indian Express, it is learnt that the selectors spoke to Jhulan Goswami about the Indian team moving on and preparing for the future and in return, the BCCI has decided to honour her services to Indian women’s cricket and give her a farewell game.
Jhulan Goswami has been the face of Indian cricket alongside Mithali Raj, who’d also retired mid-this year. Jhulan Goswami has been one of India’s finest who for 20 years has served Indian cricket having debuted way back in 2002 as a 19-year-old in a One-Day International (ODI) against England in Chennai and then came her Test debut against England in Lucknow on 14 January 2002.
Farewell match 😭
A top BCCI official said that the 3rd One-Day International against England at Lord’s will be Jhulan’s last match in international cricket. #CricketTwitter #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/kEccyX8s23
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) August 20, 2022
Jhulan Goswami is one of India’s most decorated icons and besides her winning player of the match and series awards for stellar performances over the years, she’s won the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the year award when no Indian male cricketer bagged an individual award. In 2010 she was awarded the Arjun Award and in 2012 she became the second Indian women cricketer to receive Padma Shri after Diana Edulji. She’d got the honour of the Indian team from the year 2008 – 2011 and also was the fastest bowler in world cricket at a time back in the day.
The 19-year-long career of Jhulan Goswami has seen her breach and create so many records. To name a standout, Jhulan Goswami is the leading wicket-taker in One-Day International with 252 wickets to her name in 200 innings with best figures of 6/31 and a stunningly brilliant average of 3.37.
Test match cricket too has been lucky to see a little of Jhulan Goswami and the format has seen her bag 44 wickets in 12 matches (21 innings) with best figures of 5/25 in an innings and 5/25 in a match. Jhulan has been averaging a very good 17.36 with an excellent economy rate of 2.02. With 3 fifers, 2 four-fer and a 10-wicket-haul Jhulan Goswami has a rare record to her name that is most likely never going to be breached as it was a young 23-year-old Jhulan Goswami bagging 10 wickets in a match recording figures of 10/78 against England in Taunton in 2006.
If not her absolute best, the shortest format too has seen a good share of Jhulan Goswami where she’s picked up 56 wickets in 67 innings at an average of 21.94 and an economy of 5.45. In the shortest format where 24 balls are a maximum, it didn’t resist her from displaying a special as she registered a fifer even in the format with figures of 5/11.
Like Mithali Raj’s career was celebrated with a biopic, Shabaash Mithu, Jhulan Goswami too has a biopic coming up named, ‘Chakda Xpress’ starring Anushka Sharma on Netflix. On what lies ahead for Jhulan Goswami, it can be understood from the ESPN Cricinfo report quoting, “Jhulan Goswami is keeping her options open for the inaugural women’s IPL that is scheduled for March 2023. She is also in discussions with a men’s IPL team for a mentoring role, and she will be a player and mentor for the Bengal women’s team for the upcoming domestic season.”
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