“Sometimes, he would not turn up at night because he had to go and work.” Mithali Raj speaks about the struggles her family faced to ensure she continues to pursue her dream of playing for India.
Whenever we talk about one of the greatest players to have played the sport, when it comes to women’s cricket, Mithali Raj is the first name that comes to a lot of people’s minds, especially in India. She is a flag bearer for women’s cricket and has promoted women’s cricket in India like no one else has managed to do, inspiring the younger generation to take up the sport, and that too in an era when very few people knew about women’s cricket during her initial days and throughout her time at the international level.
She learned Bharatnatyam before pursuing cricket as her full-time profession. However, she was initially reluctant to pursue the sport as no one else in her family ever explored the sport and her family wanted her to continue pursuing Bharatnatyam, but she stood up against all the societal norms to choose cricket and as they say, the rest is history.
“People think I am the only child, that much energy and focus that my parents had on me that my brother had to be like, he was the secondary. But then he also had his role to play because both my parents at one time were working. My mother also had her own career, so my brother used to look after me. She taught him how to cook the basic things so that when I came home from training, the food is there on the table and there is someone to look after me and after a point, she left her job to be at home, to be a housewife, to look after me and my brother. And my father had to do two jobs. Sometimes, he would not turn up in the night because he had to go and work, another way to earn money so that he could give me the best equipment. Because if we are looking at playing for India then the child should have all the resources that she can. So at one point, there was this turnaround in my mind that the entire family was doing every bit that they could to drive me into my goals. So then I should step up, if not for myself, for them, that was my motivating factor initially, until I found my own bearing to push my own self.” Mithali Raj on her family’s contribution to her cricket journey.
She made her international debut on 26th June 1999 in an ODI against Ireland. She went on to become one of the greatest batters of all time, an absolute legend of the game, and a great leader. She scored 7805 runs at a sensational average of 50.68 in 211 innings. Her tally of runs included 64 half-centuries and seven centuries in the ODI format. Her best performance with the bat in the ODI format came on 16th September 2018 against Sri Lanka when she scored an unbeaten 125 at a strike rate of 87.41 with the bat.
Apart from her exploits with the bat, she has also picked up 8 wickets with the ball in 10 innings at an average of 11.37 and an impressive economy of 3.19. She ended her career as the leading run-scorer for India as well as the overall leading run-scorer in the ODI format.
In the T20I format, she has scored 2364 runs at an average of 37.52 in 84 innings. Her tally of runs includes 17 half-centuries. Her best performance with the bat in the format came on 3rd June 2018 against Malaysia in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup when she scored an unbeaten 97 runs at an impressive strike rate of 140.57. As far as the red-ball format is concerned, she has scored 699 runs at an impressive average of 43.68 in 19 innings. Her tally of runs includes four half-centuries, one century, and one double century. Her best performance with the bat came on 14th August 2002 against England when she scored 214 runs at a strike rate of 52.57. She ended her career as the fourth-highest run-scorer for India in the red-ball format.
“I would say my first coach who actually taught me the basics, who showed me the dream that I can play for India. I think he was a very strict coach, even more than my father was to me because his way of teaching me the sport was very different, unconventional and he never saw me as, okay she is a girl, so let’s go easy on her. He would make sure that I was competing with boys way older than me. Like I was probably 13-14 years and I was matching every shot of mine with a Ranji Trophy player. I wasn’t even playing senior level in women’s cricket. I was competing with Ranji Trophy players and they were tall boys bowling to me. I was still like a 19-year-old kid, playing juniors, under-19, under16. He (her coach) said no if you are going to play for India at 14, you should be competing at a senior level. So I want you to play with all these boys.” Mithali Raj speaks about how her coach inspired her to dream about playing cricket for India at the international level.
She became the youngest player at the age of 19 years and 254 days to score a double century. She also holds the record for the most number of matches (155 matches) as a captain in the ODI format. As a skipper, she has a win percentage of 57.41 in the ODI format. In the T20I format, she has a win percentage of 51.35 as a skipper. She also holds the record for scoring the most number of consecutive half-centuries (7 matches) in the ODI format from 7th February 2017 to 24th June 2017. Her streak of scoring consecutive half-centuries started against Sri Lanka and ended against England.
She announced her retirement from International cricket on 8th June 2022, a couple of months after the conclusion of the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup in New Zealand.
(Quotes sourced via Jio Leap/Twitter)