Former India captain Mithali Raj announced her retirement from international cricket on Wednesday bringing down the curtain on a glorious, iconic 23-year India career.
Mithali Raj Announced Retirement From International Cricket
The career had kicked off in 1999 when Raj, on her ODI debut, struck an unbeaten century against Ireland at the age of 16 years and 205 days – still a record in women’s cricket for the youngest batter to hit an ODI ton.
She represented India in 12 Tests, 232 ODIs and 89 T20Is; her tally of 10,868 runs makes her the highest run-scorer in women’s international cricket. Raj, the leading run-scorer in women’s ODIs, notched up a record 64 ODI fifties to go with 7 ODI hundreds and one three-figure score in Tests – 214 against England in 2002.
Mithali Raj is also the only Indian, male or female, to lead the side to two ODI World Cup finals – in 2005 and 2017 – unfortunately, India lost both the finals and Raj goes out with a World Cup to her name.
When Raj opened up about not getting married
With gaining a reputation in the country and worldwide as India’s premier batter, Raj was at times faced with the question of marriage. Now, the 39-year-old Mithali Raj is not married yet.
In an interview with Mid-Day, she opened up her thoughts regarding her marriage. When asked if the decision to get married ever crossed her mind, Mithali said that it used to when she was quite younger but not anymore and that she has enjoyed singlehood.
And before that, in an interview with Sportskeeda, Raj admitted that she gets some attention from her male fans, but nothing the kind the men’s cricketers do from their female fans.
“(Smiles) To be honest, I don’t really get attention the same way that the men’s team gets from their female fans,” she had said back in 2013.
