Mithali Raj-The Tendulkar of Women’s Cricket

Introduction

MITHALI RAJ. A renowned name in the world of Women’s Cricket. Nicknamed “the Lady Sachin Tendulkar of India”, as to respect her records in Women’s cricket as of Sachin Tendulkar’s in Men’s cricket. The 38-year Indian Women’s Team Opening Batsman and former Indian Women’s ODI Cricket team Captain is known all over the world for her destructive batting abilities. She is the Highest Run scorer in the history of Women’s ODI Cricket. This Bharatnatyam dancer has delighted the world with his batting techniques and upped the quality of Women’s Cricket to a higher level for India.

Birth And Childhood

Mithali Dorai Raj was born to Mr. Dorai Raj, Airman (Warrant Officer) in the Indian Air Force, and Mrs. Leela Raj (worked with the Engineering Instruments division of Lawrence and Mayo) in a Tamil family at Jodhpur, Rajasthan on December 3^rd, 1982. She had an elder brother, Mr. Mithun Raj. Mr. Dorai Raj later joined the Andhra Bank and was posted in Secunderabad.

 She started her journey as a Bharatnatyam dancer in the early stages of her life. She was admitted to Keyes High School for Girls at Hyderabad and later to Kasturba Gandhi Junior College for Women in Secunderabad for her intermediate years. 

Mithali Raj started her approach in Cricket, her future career and glory, at the age of 10. As per her father, Mr. Raj, introduced her to cricket to change her habit of late rising in the morning. It was around this time that her talent attracted the attention of the coach Jyothi Prasad, the cricket coach at St. John’s coaching camp, who advised Mr. Raj to turn his concentration towards his daughter rather than his son, who was in the same cricket camp.

Later, on the advice of Jyothi Prasad, she was admitted to Keyes School where Sampath Kumar from NIS was the coach. A year later, Sampath Kumar, predicted the future of Mithali and predicted it quite accurately. This prediction was directed to her glorious journey in the career that brought pride to herself, her family, and also to the country later in the coming time.

Career in the game

Mithali Raj started off her career in Domestic career playing for Railways. Later she played for Air India where Mithali played alongside stars like Purnima Rau, Anjum Chopra, and Anju Jain. She was named for the Women’s Cricket World Cup when she was 14 but wasn’t finally selected. Her international career started in WODIs against Ireland at Milton, Keynes on June 26^th, 1999 at the age of 16 years and 205 days. In the match, Mithali scored 114 runs and became the youngest centurion in her debut in WODIs. Her test debut was against England in the England tour of India of 2001-02 at Lucknow on January 14^th, 2002. Mithali was out for a duck in her debut and was not able to play as her talent. Mithali’s talent sparked in International cricket when she scored a double ton (214), breaking the record of Karen Rolton (209*) for the highest Individual runs in Test cricket, in her third Test against England. Her T20I Debut was also against England on August 5^th, 2006 where she scored 28 runs off 37 balls.

Mithali Raj could not take part in the Cricinfo Women’s World Cup 2002 due to her illness from typhoid. Mithali later lead team India in the Women’s World Cup in 2005 and India, for the first time India qualified for the finals. She also led India in the Women’s ODI World Cup in 2013 and 2017 thus having led India Women’s Team in Two ODI World Cups. Mithali Raj was also the first Indian Women’s Cricket Team Captain to defeat England in a Test series in a tour in England and win the Asia Cup, both in the year 2006.

Records

Mithali Raj currently holds the record of the fastest to 6000 International runs in Women’s Cricket with an average of 51.5 in July 2017. She also has the record of most half-centuries (7) under her name. She is also the highest run-getter in ODIs in Women’s Cricket. She also is the captain to have played most consecutive WODIs for a team. She is the leading run-scorer in all formats for Indian Women’s Cricket. She is the 1st Indian and 5th cricketer to have scored more than 1000 World Cup runs. She is the only Captain to have led her side in more than 100 ODIs. At the 2013 Women’s World Cup, Mithali Raj has announced as the No. 1 Women’s Cricketer by ICC. In December 2017 she made it to the ICC WODI Team of the Year.

Retirement-Mithali Raj announced her retirement from T20I cricket in September 2019 after her 13 years career in 2006 in WT20Is. She retired from International Test cricket earlier in 2014. She aims to win the WODI World Cup for India that is to take place in 2021.

Having played ODI cricket for 23 long years, Mithali Raj announced her retirement from international cricket on 8th June 22. The ace batter played her last match in the 2022 Women’s World Cup against South Africa in New Zealand and smacked a half century also.

Coaching career

Mithali Raj was and is currently the batting consultant of Indian Women’s Cricket. She even played as a player while coaching the team. 

Downtown in career-Mithali Raj faced a lot of controversies in her career against Management. Things started off during the 2018 WT20I World Cup, regarding her attitude towards the game. Later in her report to BCCI, she accused Ramesh Powar and BCCI COA member Diana Edulji of bias and humiliation against her and complained of not letting her play n the semifinals of the tournament. Ramesh Powar, the Indian Women’s Team Coach also retaliated in his report to the BCCI. She was accused of putting herself before the team, something that gained fire after her playing 25 dot balls for her half-century against Ireland. Mithali supposedly has a tense relationship with Harmanpreet Kaur, her successor as the current Women’s Team Captain.

Career Stats

Career Batting Stats

Right-Handed Batsman

Format	M	Inn	NO	Runs	HS	Avg	BF	BF	SR	100s	50s
Test2002–14	10	16	3	663	214	51.0	1461	407	45.4	1	4
ODI1999–	214	193	54	7098	125*	51.1	10547	143	–	7	55
T20I2006–19	89	84	21	2364	97*	37.5	2426	69	–	0	17

Career Bowling Stats

Right-Arm Leg Spin Bowler

Format	M	Inn	B	Mdn	Runs	W	BB	Econ	Avg	SR	4W	5W
Test2002–14	10	5	72	2	32	0	0/5	2.66	–	–	0	0
ODI1999–	214	10	171	7	91	8	3/4	3.19	11.4	21.4	0	0
T20I2006–19	89	1	6	0	6	0	0/6	6.00	–	–	0	0

Awards

Year	Award
2003	Arjuna Award
2015	Padma Shri
2017	Youth Sports Icon of Excellence Award
2017	Vogue Sportsperson of the Year
2017	BBC 100 Women
2017	Wisden Leading Woman Cricketer in the World

Life Outside Cricket

Mithali Raj is currently single and is acing her status as she stated in her interviews. In her free times she likes to read books and as stated earlier concentrates on Bharatnatyam, her goal as a youngster.

Biography Of Mithali Raj

After the 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, under Director Rahul Dholakia, came forward with the concept of making a movie as Mithali Raj’s biography. The movie “Shabaash Mithu” is supposedly under production starring Tapsee Pannu as Mithali Raj.

Net Worth of Mithali Raj

Titles	Description
Real Name	Mithali Dorai Raj
Birth Place	Jodhpur, Rajasthan
Parents	Father- Dorai Raj AndMother- Leela Raj
Education	Graduation
Luxury Car	Honda Accord of Rs 35.49 Lacs (  $49.45 Million).  and Renault Duster of Rs 8.49 Lacs ( $0.11 Million )
Net Worth	$5Million(INR 37Cr Approx ) as of Aug 2020.

Social Media Contacts

	Account link	Followers
Instagram	Mithali Raj on Instagram	1.4 M
Twitter	Mithali Raj on Twitter	798.3 K