Mithali Raj: The legends's incredible 23-year long cricketing career

New Delhi, Jun 09: Beloved cricket legend Mithali Raj announced her retirement from cricket on Wednesday after a stellar 23-year career. As the top run-scorer in women's ODI, Mithali Raj is undoubtedly an inspiration for women cricketers.

Mithali announced her retirement at 39 through a tweet while fans awaited the announcement of the Indian women's cricket team's T20I and ODI tour of Sri Lanka. She wrote, "I set out as a little girl on the journey to wear the India blues as representing your country is the highest honour. The journey was full of highs and some lows. Each event taught me something unique and the last 23 years have been the most fulfilling, challenging & enjoyable years of my life. Like all journeys, this one too must come to an end. Today is the day I retire from all forms of International Cricket."

Raj, the quintessential legend of Indian cricket, further proceeded to thank all her supporters and spoke about what an honour it had been to represent India on an international scale. She also expressed her desire to still contribute to women's cricket by helping it grow more nationally and internationally.

Here are some unforgettable moments in her 23-year career in cricket.

Debut against Ireland

Mithali's ODI debut in Ireland shot her to fame almost instantly. With a score of 112, she became the youngest player to score a century in an ODI at 16. No man or woman cricketer has beaten this record even today.

Surpassing the double century best

Karen Rolton, the former Australian cricketer, had a record of the world's highest individual Test score of 209. In 2002, at 19, Mithali broke her record by scoring a new high of 214 against England at Taunton.

Captain of Indian Women's cricket team

For the first time in the history of women's cricket, under Mithali's captaincy, the Indian team reached the finals in the 2005 Women's Cricket World Cup. They lost against Australia, but it was a new hope for women's cricket in India. In 2006, she led her team to victory against England in Test and Series and also to win the Asia Cup.

Mithali is the first player to have captained most matches for India, 155 to be exact, in ODI and T20I. She retired from T20I in 2019 to focus on the Women's Cricket World Cup.

Highest Women's ODI run-scorer

Before 2017, Charlotte Edwards, the former English cricketer, was the highest run-corer in Women's ODI. Raj broke this record by scoring 409 runs in 9 matches and today remains the highest run-scorer in Women's ODI with 7,805 runs.

Highest run-scorer in international cricket

Mithali is the first Indian woman cricketer to have scored 10,000 runs in all formats and the second to do so internationally. She retires with 10,868 runs, which is more than English cricketer Charlotte Edwards' 10,273 runs.

A reluctant child prodigy

Mithali once revealed that she had never wanted to play cricket. At St John's Cricket Academy grounds in Secunderabad, Raj would swing the bats to pass the time when accompanying her brother and father. Jyothi Prasad, a former First-Class cricketer, referred her to the coach, late Sampath Kumar, after observing her natural talent for the sport. Back then, Raj had wanted to become a Bharatnatyam dancer.

Her later dedication to the game and brilliance made her one of the probable choices for the Indian Women's cricket team at the 1997 Women's Cricket World Cup at just 14.

Awards and Recorgnition

Mithali was awarded the Arjuna Cup (2003), Padma Shri (2015) and Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award (2021) for her contribution to sports and the country. She was recognised as the Vogue Sportsperson of the Year in 2017 after breaking Edwards' record of highest run-scorer in the Women's ODI. She is nicknamed the "Lady Tendulkar of Indian Women's Cricket."

Mithali's retirement from Women's cricket indeed is a loss for both the sport and the Indian team. However, her contribution to the same makes her unforgettable in the history of Indian cricket. She remains one of the greatest cricketers of all time.