Right handed opening batter Mithali Raj opens up on her Interest to play for India in 2021 women’s World Cup. The 1982 born female cricketer is the only female cricketer to surpass the 6,000 run mark in Women’s One Day International matches.
Raj is the only player (male or female) to have captained India in more than one ICC ODI World Cup final, doing so twice in 2005 and 2017. She is the only female cricketer to play 200 ODI matches.
In June 2018 during the 2018 Women’s Twenty20 Asia Cup, she became the first player from India (either male or female) to score 2000 runs in T20Is, and also became the first woman cricketer to reach 2002 WT20I runs.
In September 2019, she announced her retirement from T20Is to focus on ODI cricket. The former captain Mithali Raj became the first woman to complete 20 years in international cricket.
Raj’s Love Towards 2021 World Cup
In an Instagram live session “Cricket Inside Out” Mithali Raj express her love towards winning an ICC Trophy for India. “I actually caught up with Mithali Raj on an Instagram Live that i did and i said to her it must hurt her that she still hasn’t got an ICC trophy. And it does, she said that’s the one thing that is certainly driving her and she’s using this time(quarantine), like you” said Elma.
Elma also states : A lot of players just focus one physical point of view and fitness. She(Mithali Raj) still has a very strict routine where she’s hitting balls down in he garage and still making sure that she’s upskilling so that she is ready to lead India, hopefully to World cup success in 2021.
Awards won by Mithali Raj :
She is the recipient of several awards, including the Wisden Leading Woman Cricketer in the World in 2017. She was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2003, and the Padma Shri in 2015, both by the Government of India.
Mithali’s Records in cricket :
- Mithali held the record for the highest individual score by an Indian Woman Cricketer in a World Cup match (91 not out off 104 deliveries which included 9 fours) against New Zealand in the Women’s World Cup 2005. Harmanpreet Kaur overtook Raj by scoring a century (107 from 109 balls) in the second match of ICC Women’s World Cup 2013 against England.
- Mithali is nicknamed “Lady Tendulkar of Indian Women’s cricket“, as she is currently the all-time leading run-scorer for India in all formats, including Tests, ODIs and T20Is.
- During the 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup, Raj scored her seventh consecutive half-century and made a record for most consecutive fifties by a player.
- Mithali is the 1st Indian and 5th woman cricketer overall to score over 1,000 World Cup runs.
- She holds the record for playing the most consecutive Women’s One Day Internationals for a team (109).
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