The captain cool of Indian Women’s cricket, Mithali Raj was in news for reading a book, just before going to bat during the inaugural Women’s World Cup match against England. She admitted that she was relaxing, as suggested by her coach to keep the pressure off her. While she has received praises for her brilliant leadership skills, here are a few interesting facts about Raj you may want to know.
1. Mithali, made her intentional debut at the age of 16 years and 250 days, she is the youngest female cricketer to score a ODI hundred.
2. Raj’s Dad, Dorai Raj was an officer in the Indian Air Force.
3. Before taking up cricket, she learnt Bharatnatyam and wanted to make a career in it.
4. Raj was only 19 when she broke Karen Rolton’s record of highest individual test score on August 14, 2002.
5. In 2006, under her captaincy, the Indian women’s cricket team won their first Test and ODI series in England.
6. In 2006, the Indian team won the Asian Cup, for the second time in twelve months.
7. In 2013, Raj was the no. 1 ODI cricketer in the women’s division.
8.Mithali Raj also received the Padma Shri Award in 2015
9.Mithali Raj is the only second cricketer in women cricket’s history to cross 5,000 ODI runs.
10. There are many reasons why she is called as the Sachin Tendulkar of Women’s cricket. One of it being Raj’s affiliation towards nervous 90s. She holds the record for scoring most 90s. In her career so far, Mithali has scored five 90s.
11. She recently became the first international female cricketer to score seven consecutive fifties. This record does not exist even in men’s cricket.