India women Test and ODI captain Mithali Raj to millions of young female and male cricketers around the country. But whom does she look up to?
Raj, who will lead India in the upcoming ODI World Cup in New Zealand, hosted a Q&A session on Twitter while she undergoes the last phase of her quarantine in New Zealand.
One of the fans asked her: “Who is the one leader you look upto?”
Mithali Raj promptly replied that her idol is none other than India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Known for his incredible work ethic, Narendra Modi is the 14 Prime Minister of India, having taken the position after winning the 2014 elections. Modi, the supremo of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had been the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014. Modi has done the hard yard during his journey from a tea seller to becoming the political leader of the country and continues to inspire one and all.
Our hon’ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji https://t.co/XwXkzhd4QT
— Mithali Raj (@M_Raj03) February 5, 2022
Mithali Raj, who made her India debut in 1999, has been the torchbearer of women’s cricket in the country alongside teammate pacer Jhulan Goswami with both having overcome immense cricket and social obstacles.
Both Raj and Goswami – both aged 39 – are at the fag end of their careers and the 2022 Women’s World Cup will be their last major tournament. Raj captained India in the 2017 World Cup final but missed the title by a small margin against England; the players are more learned and experienced this time and look set to give their best shot at the coveted trophy.
In November last year, Mithali Raj was rewarded with the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award – which is the highest sporting honour in India – by the national sports awards committee.
The Jodhpur-born batter is the leading run-scorer in women’s cricket – she has amassed 7391 ODI runs, 2364 T20I runs, and 699 Test runs in her career over more than two decades. She doesn’t play in the shortest format anymore but leads the nation in ODI and Test cricket.
