One cannot think about India's Women Cricket team without mentioning Mithali Raj's name. This lady is a living legend who broke all the boundaries and made her name in the whole world. We all have read various several success stories, but this woman's story is something different. Her journey varies and, she has single-handedly made several records in her name. She is the god of the Women's Cricket team and, every girl who dreams of becoming a cricketer admires her.
Mithali Raj – Statistics
- Full Name - Mithali Raj
- Nickname - Mithu
- Born - 3rd December 1982 (38 years)
- Birth - Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India
- Role - Batsman
- Batting - Right-handed
- Height - 5 ft 4 in
- No. of tests played - 10
- No. of ODIs played - 214
- No. of T20I played - 89
Mithali Raj - Early Life
Mithali was born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan but, she completed her education in Hyderabad. She attended St. Johns High School for her cricket coaching. For further practice, she joined Keyes Girls High School in Secunderabad. She has played various matches in domestic cricket.
Raj also played for Railways and practiced with legends like Anjum Chopra, Purnima Rao, Anju Jain, etc. She got exposure while playing for domestic matches and, this helped her in her International career.
Mithali Raj - Family and Personal Life
Mithali Raj was born in a Tamil family. Her mother, Leela Raj, is a housewife and, her father, Dorai Raj, was an officer in the Indian Air Force. She started playing cricket at the very young age of 10 with her elder brother. She attended Kasturba Gandhi Junior College for Women for her graduation.
Mithali Raj - Career
With a batting average of more than 50, Mithali Raj has ruled the cricket ground single-handedly. She was also selected for the 1997 Women's World Cricket World Cup when she was just 14 years old. Unfortunately, she couldn't make it to the final squad but, there was no looking back for this chivalrous lady.
- Early Career In her 3rd test match, she broke the record of Karn Rolton's 209 test runs. She was just 19 years old and, she scored 214 runs for her team.
- 2006 Asian Cup She led the team in the 2005 World Cup and, the Indian team faced the Australian team. However, they lost the game but, the match was a cutthroat war for both teams. In 2006, she led the team to win Asia Cup and the first-ever test victory against England. Mithali is currently on the 8th spot in the ICC female ODI batsman. She has also topped the ranking chart for several years.
- Women World Cup She also led the team in the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup, where the Indian team lost by nine runs from the England team.
- Retirement Mithali took retirement in 2019 from T20I to focus entirely on her ODI career. She dreams of winning World Cup for India till 2021.
Mithali Raj – Records
- Mithali is the leading scorer in ODI, Tests, and T20I. She is also known as the Lady Tendulkar of Women's Cricket.
- She is the 1dt Indian Women Cricketer to cross 10,000 International runs.
- She has most consecutive fifties by a cricket player (7) in the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup.
- 1st Indian Women Cricketer to score 1000 runs in World Cup (5th in the world).
- Raj was the 1st woman to play 200 ODIs
- She is the only woman cricketer to captain India several times in World Cups, ICC, and ODIs.
- Raj is the 1st woman who has played for more than two years in International cricket.
- She has played most consecutive Women's ODI (109).
Mithali Raj - Awards and Achievements
- Arjuna Award - 2003
- Padma Shri - 2015
- Youth Sports Icon of Excellence Award - 2017
- Vogue Sportsperson of the Year - 2017
- BBC 100 Women - 2017
- Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World - 2017
- ODI Cricketer of the decade
- ICC Female Cricketer of the decade
Mithali Raj - Brand Endorsements
Mithali Raj is one of those few female players in India who has gained a massive fan following. It helped her in bagging various brand endorsements. Companies want to keep her as their brand ambassador because of her huge fan base. Some of the brands endorsed by her are:
- L'Oreal Paris
- Vaseline
- Redmi Note 4
- Royal Stag
Mithali Raj - Bollywood Movie: Shabaash Mithu
There is also a movie coming on Mithali Raj's biopic. Viacom 18 Motion Pictures has acquired the right to make a movie based on her life and journey through cricket.
Mithali is a huge movie buff and, she loves Bollywood movies in her free time. She initially wanted Priyanka Chopra to play in her biopic, now TapseePannu has been finalized for the role. The film will be named Shabaash Mithu, directed by Rahul Dholakia.
Apart from this, it is a lesser-known fact that Mithali Raj is also a trained Bharatnatyam Dancer.
Mithali Raj - Fans and Following
Mithali is not very active on any of her social media accounts. She hardly posts and, most of her posts are cricket-related only. She has around 1.4 million followers on Instagram and more than 800 thousand followers on Twitter.
She is also one of the most followed Indian Women cricketers on various social media platforms.
Mithali Raj – Real Women Empowerment
Mithali's journey has been nothing but a total inspiration for all the youngsters in the country. This woman had the guts to do something that no one would ever think of doing at that time. She broke all the barriers and carved the path for herself. Her outstanding career played a role in motivating girls to choose cricket as their career. Her hard work and passion speak for her and reflect on her game. Women like Mithali are born once in a decade and, she is undoubtedly a role model for all of us.
