Mithali Raj Biography | Birth, Age, Career, Records, Awards, & More

Mithali Raj is an Indian cricketer famous for being the leading run scorer in women’s international cricket. She is often credited as ‘Lady Sachin’. India’s best batswoman, Mithali Raj, has reached many milestones in her storied international career spanning over two decades. The woman with the most runs in the game and the only Indian captain, male or female, to have led the team to two 50+ World Cup finals, the only major distinction that eludes the titular ODI captain is the tag of a World Cup. winner. In pursuit of that dream, Raj retired from T20Is in September 2019, as India’s leading run scorer, having last led the team in the format during the 2016 T20 World Cup on home soil. She retired from international cricket in June 2022.
Raj holds numerous records in international cricket. She is the only female cricketer to have broken the 7,000 runs mark in Women’s One Day International matches. She is the first player to score seven consecutive 50s in ODIs. She also holds the record for over half a century in WODI. In June 2018, during the 2018 Asian Women’s Twenty20 Cup, she became the first player from India, male or female, to score 2000 runs in T20I, and also became the first female cricketer to reach 2000 runs in WT20I.

In 2005, Raj became the permanent captain of India. She is the only player to have captained India to more than one ICC ODI World Cup final, twice in 2005 and 2017. On 1 February 2019, during India’s series against New Zealand women, Raj became in the first woman to play in 200 ODI matches. In September 2019, she announced her retirement from T20Is to focus on ODI cricket. In 2019, she became the first woman to complete 20 years in international cricket.

Early life

Mithali Raj was born on December 3, 1982 to a Tamil family in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. His father is Dorai Raj, who was an aviator (non-commissioned officer) in the Indian Air Force, and his mother is Leela Raj. Raj started playing at the age of 10. He lives in Hyderabad, Telangana. She attended Keyes High School for Girls in Hyderabad. She attended the Kasturba Gandhi Junior College for Women in Secunderabad for her intermediate studies. She started out as a cricket coach in her school days along with her older brother.

Mithali is considered one of the best female cricketers who has praised the game of cricket. She has the highest runs total of anyone in women’s international cricket and is the only female cricketer to exceed the 6,000 runs threshold at Women’s One Day Internationals. To top it off, Mithali is not just a batsman, but also a good bowler, who specializes in leg breaks with her right arm.
Mithali started playing cricket at a very young age of 10, she and her older brother were cricket coaches during their school days. She started out playing domestic cricket for the Railways and emerged as a star later on.
She is a Bharatanatyam dancer.

Debut

Mithali made his ODI debut on June 26, 1999 against Ireland and scored 114 runs.
On January 14, 2002 he made his Test debut against England in Lucknow, India. Unfortunately, he was not meant to be a dream debut and he was left without a duck.
Raj made his T20 debut on August 5, 2006 against England, scoring 28-for-37 from the ball. India won the match by eight wickets.

BATTING STATUS

BOWLING STATUS

International career

Mithali has played all three formats of cricket for India, Test, One Day and T20. She was named among the probables at the 1997 Cricket Women’s World Cup when she was only 14 years old, but she failed to make the final team. She made her One Day International debut in 1999 against Ireland at Milton Keynes and scored 114 runs without losing. She made her test debut in the 2001-02 season against South Africa in Lucknow. On 17 August 2002, at the age of 19, in her third Test, she broke Karen Rolton’s record for the world’s highest individual Test score of 209*, scoring a new record of 214 against England in the second and last test at County Ground, Taunton. . The record has since been broken by Pakistan’s Kiran Baluch who scored 242 against the West Indies in March 2004.

Raj fell ill with typhoid fever during the CricInfo Women’s World Cup in 2002, seriously hampering India’s progress. However, she then took them to their first World Cup final in 2005, in South Africa, where they faced Australia, who proved too strong.

In August 2006, she led the team to its first test and series victory in England and ended the year by winning the Asian Cup, the second time in 12 months, without losing a single game.

She led the Indian team to the final of the 2005 Cricket Women’s World Cup, where the team lost to Australia. She also bowls part-time. She received the Arjuna award of the year 2003. She currently leads the batting chart with 703 ratings. Her composure when she is in the crease and her ability to score energetically make her a dangerous cricketer. In addition to her skill with the bat, Raj swings his arm over bowling games and provides variety to the offense.

At the 2013 Women’s World Cup, Raj was the No. 1 female cricketer in the ODI table among women. She scored 100:1 and 50:4 in Test Cricket, 100:5 and 50:50 with best 3/4 bowling in ODI and 50:10 in T20.

In February 2017, she became the second player to score 5,500 runs in WODI. Raj is the first player to captain most of India’s matches in ODI and T20I.

In July 2017, she became the first player to score 6,000 runs in WODI. She led the Indian team to the final of the 2017 Cricket Women’s World Cup, where the team lost to England by nine runs.

In December 2017, she was named as one of the ICC Women’s ODI Team of the Year players.

In October 2018, she was named in the India squad for the 2018 ICC Women’s World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies.

In September 2019, Raj retired from T20I Cricket. She dreams of bringing the World Cup to her country in 2021. “After representing India in T20 internationals since 2006, I wish to retire from T20Is to focus my energies on preparing for the 2021 One-Day World Cup” said in a BCCI press release.

In November 2020, Raj was nominated for the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Decade Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Award and the ODI Women’s Cricketer of the Decade Award.

In May 2021, she was named captain of the India test team for their one-off match against the England women’s cricket team. In January 2022, she was named as India’s team captain for the 2022 Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand.

On June 8, 2022, Raj announced his retirement from all formats of international cricket.

Awards

Coach Career

Raj was appointed batting consultant for the India women’s national cricket team and had played as a player-coach.

Movie

After the 2017 Women’s World Cup of Cricket, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures acquired the rights to make a film about Raj’s life. She said, “Hoping this movie will inspire more people, especially girls, to take up sports as a career.”

The biopic is in planning and filming is scheduled to begin in 2019. Raj said, “I think Priyanka Chopra will be a great choice (to play me in the biopic). Our personalities overlap a lot. I’m not a movie buff, so I I would love for the experts to do their job.” However, it was finally decided that Taapsee Pannu will play the role of Mithali Raj in the Shabaash Mithu biopic. It was going to be directed by Rahul Dholakia in 2020 but as the filming was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in June 2021 Srijit Mukherji replaced him as the director of the film due to a schedule change. The film is in the post-production stage and its premiere is scheduled for July 15, 2022.

Web

• Instagram – Mithali Raj (@mithaliraj)

Facts

• Mithali Raj at the 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup
• 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 of over fifty consecutive years by a player.
• Mithali is the first Indian female cricketer and the fifth overall to score more than 1,000 runs in the World Cup.
• She holds the record for playing the most consecutive one-day women’s internationals for a team.
• Mithali Raj was involved in a controversy with cricket management due to her attitude towards the game during the 2018 ICC Women’s World Twenty20. She accused coach Ramesh Powar and BCCI COA member Diana Edulji in a letter to BCCI of bias , humiliation for not including her in the semi-finals of the T20 world cup. Powar, in turn, criticized that Raj had threatened to withdraw from the game of cricket when he was asked to downplay the batting order.
• She also accused Raj of ‘blackmailing and pressuring coaches’ as well as causing division in the team during the just concluded T20 World Cup. She added, “despite being a senior player on the team, she makes minimal contributions at team meetings. She couldn’t understand or fit into the team plan. She ignored her role and fought for her own milestones. Failing to maintain the momentum that was put additional pressure on other hitters.
• Raj’s 50 against Ireland in the same tournament where he ended up playing 25 dot balls was also criticized by coach Powar.
• His relationship with T20 team captain Harmanpreet Kaur is also said to be strained. However, after Ramesh Powar’s re-election as head coach of the Indian women’s cricket team in May 2021, the two reconciled. Mithali and Harmanpreet also confirmed that they had no bad blood between them in various interviews.

Internal Link

• Naziha Salim
• Shafali Verma
• Tina Dabi
• Milkha Singh
• Saikhom Mirabai Chanu
• Adwaita Nayar