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Mithali Raj – The ‘Lady Tendulkar’ of Cricket

With women making a name for themselves in the field dominated by men is not an easy thing to do. Here we bring you some information on the “Lady Tendulkar” of cricket and the captain of Indian Women Cricket Mithali Raj.

Mithali Raj’s Personal Information

  • Full name: Mithali Dorai Raj
  • Date of Birth: December 3, 1982
  • Birth Place: Jodhpur, Rajasthan
  • Age: 37 years (As of August 2020)
  • Nick name: Lady Tendulkar
  • Marital Status: Unmarried
  • Height: 1.63 m
  • Educational Qualification: Standard 12
  • Besides cricket, Raj enjoys reading books as a hobby and is also a Bharatanatyam dancer.

School Attended:

Keyes High School for Girls in Secunderabad 

Kasturba Gandhi Junior College for Women, Secunderabad 

Mithali Raj’s Professional Information

  • Jersey Number: 3
  • Batting style: Right-Handed
  • Bowling style: Right-arm leg break 
  • Man of the Match: ODI -19, T20I – 11, Test – 1 
  • Raj’s salary: Rs 50 lakh

Mithali’s Early Life and Family 

Born in a Tamil family, Mithali is the daughter of Dorai Raj who was an Airman (Warrant Officer) in the Indian Air Force and Leela Raj. Mithali who started off by playing domestic cricket for Railways was coached by her elder brother, Mithun Raj for the sport during her early childhood. She started playing cricket at a tender age of 10. 

A dance enthusiast turned cricketer, Raj learnt Bharatanatyam till age 8. In one of the interviews, she was keen on pursuing civil services. 

The ‘Lady Tendulkar’ of Indian Women Cricket was part of the Indian team at the age of 17 and is hailed as one of the best women cricketers.

Mithali Raj’s Debut

  • ODI Debut: June 26 1999 (Against Ireland)
  • Scored a stellar 114 runs*
  • Test Debut: January 14 2002 (Against England)
  • Run-out for a duck
  • T20 Debut: August 5 2006 (Against England) 
  • Scored 28 runs off 37 balls

Statistics

Batting and fielding averages

MatInnsNORunsHSAve10050CtSt
Tests1016366321451.0014110
ODIs209189536888125*50.64753530
T20Is898421236497*37.52017190

Bowling averages

MatInnsBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4w5w10
Tests105723202.66000
ODIs209101719183/43/411.373.1921.3000
T20Is8916606.00000

Records and Career Highlights 

  • Holds the record of highest total runs in women’s international cricket 
  • The only cricketer to transcend the 6,000 run threshold in Women’s ODIs.
  • First-ever women cricketer to score 49 half-centuries in ODI and seven of them on the trot. 
  • The first woman cricketer in the world to have played 200 ODIs. 
  • Raj is the first Indian and fifth woman cricketer overall to notch over 1,000 World Cup runs. 
  • Second to Charlotte Edwards, she is the most capped player in the history of ODI.
  • The veteran India batter is the only Indian to have scored more than 2000 runs in the T20I format. 
  • The first woman in the history of cricket to have an ODI career span of over 20 years. Interestingly, Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, and Javed Miandad are the only ones who have played for over two decades in ODI cricket. 
  • Leading ODI-run scorer in women’s cricket with 6720* runs
  • Raj is the only player (male or female) who has captained India in more than one ICC ODI World Cup Final (2005 and 2017)
  • First Woman to complete 20 years of ODI Cricket
  • With scoring a century in her debut ODI match against Ireland in 1999, made her the youngest female cricketer (at the age of 16) to score a century in International Cricket. 
  • At the age of 21, she became the youngest captain in the history of Indian Women Cricket to lead the Indian team against the West Indies in 2004.  
  • At the age of 19, only in her third Test match, she surpassed Karen Rolton’s 209 with her 214 which set a new record of the best individual score in the longest format. 
  • Highest average in Successful Run chase in ODIs (Min 20 innings) – 107.15 
  • She has a career average of over 51
  • Record holder for most consecutive WODI’s played for a team 
  • The first-ever to scale 6000 runs in women’s cricket in India’s world cup game against Australia 
  • Only the third player in women’s history to lead India in 100-plus ODIs. 

Awards and Recognitions

  • Arjuna Award for Cricket (2003)
  • Padma Shri (2015)
  • Wisden Leading Women Cricketer in the World (2017)
  • Featured on BBC’s 100 Women List (2017)
  • Youth Sports Icon of Excellence Award (2017)
  • Vogue Sportsperson of the Year (2017) 

Mithali Raj’s Net Worth 

As per reports, her estimated net worth is $1 million (6,87,50,000).

Raj owns a lavish home in Hyderabad which is said to be worth Rs 2.2 crore. The former caption is also a proud owner of a BMW 320d whose value begins from Rs 39.80 lakh and a Ford.

Mithali Raj’s Endorsements

  • Laver and Wood
  • Uber
  • Rio Tinto
  • L’oreal Paris (Brand Ambassadors along with Aditi Rao Hydari and Shakti Mohan)
  • Lia Agarbathi

Biopic on Mithali Raj

Viacom 18 motion pictures acquired the rights to make a biopic on Mithali Raj, soon after the 2017 women’s cricket world cup. Talking about the film Mithali views “hoping that this movie inspires more people especially young girls to take up sports as a career.
Raj said she would like Priyanka Chopra to play her in the biopic as she believes their personality matches a lot. However, it was finally decided that Tapsee Pannu will play the role and the film will be directed by Rahul Dholakia.

Controversies surrounding Mithali Raj 

Following the exclusion of Mithali Raj from the semi-final of ICC Women’s World Cup T20, in a letter written to BCCI, Raj had accused coach Ramesh Powar and Diana Edulji, which mentioned bias, humiliation and excluding her from T20 World Cup semifinals. Against the accusations, Powar blamed Raj for ‘blackmailing and pressurizing coaches’ and that she threatened to retire from cricket when not given the number 1 batting order. 

https://scroll.in/field/903672/full-text-mithali-rajs-letter-to-bcci-ceo-rahul-johri-and-gm-saba-karim

What next?

Mithali Raj is prepping up for some unfinished business. The former captain has her full focus on World Cup 2021. After coming close to winning the World cup and losing twice. She announced retirement from T20I on September 3 2019 to concentrate on ODI’s. Raj wants to reach the pinnacle of success by winning the World Cup 2021.

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Ava Brown
Ava Brown is a dedicated sports writer who skillfully captures the excitement and passion of the athletic world. Her insightful articles for Sportycious provide readers with a unique perspective on various sports disciplines. When she isn't crafting captivating content, Ava enjoys cheering on her favourite teams and actively participating in sports herself.
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