Jhulan Goswami to retire: Check out 5 facts you might not know about her

Jhulan Goswami has been selected for Team India during the women's team's tour of England. The third ODI at Lord's will likely be her farewell international match. Here are some unknown facts about her.

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Regarding some of the greatest Indian cricketing legends in the women's category, along with renowned former skipper Mithali Raj, pacer Jhulan Goswami also makes the list. Known for her sheer pace and ability to churn out regular wickets and breakthroughs, even in crunch situations, by keeping her calm, Jhulan made a name for herself. While she holds numerous records to her name, including the most wickets in One-Day Internationals (ODIs), her career has been no less than a dream. As she prepares to play her farewell match at Lord's and hang up her boots from international cricket, we present some of her unknown facts.

Inspired by ICC Women's World Cup 1997 final
As for how Jhulan came into cricket, during the 1997 ICC Women's World Cup final at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, she was one of the ball girls. As Australia and New Zealand fought it out, she was inspired to see legends like Belinda Clark, Debbie Hockey and Cathryn Fitzpatrick, as she decided to take up the sport.

Fastest women's bowler
Yes, Jhulan is the fastest bowler in the history of women's international cricket. She broke the record of Cathryn Fitzpatrick of Australia in terms of speed and regularly bowls at a pace of 120 km/h.

Player-cum-coach
In one of the rarest traditions in Indian cricket, Jhulan is a player-cum-coach in the Indian women's side. She was appointed as the bowling consultant for the side under head coach Ramesh Powar, gladly fulfilling the duty and role.

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Padma Shri awardee
While Jhulan was undoubtedly one of the Arjuna awardees in 2010, she was also conferred with the Padma Shri award a couple of years later. She became only the second Indian woman cricketer back then to be vested with the honour after Diana Edulji.

MS Dhoni gave her an award
Jhulan won the prestigious ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year in 2007. However, to her surprise, she was handed the laurel by none other then-Team India Twenty20 International (T20I) skipper MS Dhoni. Jhulan affirmed that the moment brought a big smile to her face, referring to it as 'icing on the cake'.