Mithali Raj (Indian Cricketer)

Biography:

Birthday: 3rd December, 1982

Father’s Name:Dorai Raj

Mother’s Name: Leela Raj

Born In: Rajasthan

Nationality: Indian

Introduction:

Mithali dorai Raj is an India cricketer and the former captain for the women’s in Indian national cricket team. She is considered to be one of the finest batswomen to score 6,000 runs in WODIs. She is the first player to score 50s in seven consecutives ODIs. Mithali is the only player in the entire Indian men and women team to have captaincy in more than one ICC ODI World Cup final. Recently she announced her retirement from T20Is to focus on ODIs. She completed her 20 years of playing in international cricket and moreover she is the first women to have this achievement. She has been the backbone of Indian cricket team of women. With her influence and hardship the condition of women cricket in India has evolved a lot to it’s betterment. 

Early Life:

Mitali Raj was born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, in the year 1982 3rd December. She belongs from a Tamil family background, her father is Dorai Raj who wasa warrant officer in the Indian Air Force and her mother is Leela Raj who worked with the engineering instruments division of Lawrence and Mayo. She is not the only child of her parents, she is having an elder brother Mithun Raj. Mithali started sharing interest for playing cricket from her elder brother only and the person behind her inspiration has alwaysbeen the legend, Sachin Tendulkar. It was Jyoti Prasad, Mithun’s coach who recognized Mithali’s skills for playing cricket and informed her parents about this. Soon after that she started her journey under the guidance of Sampath Kumar. She started playing cricket at a very early age of 10 years old and she was selected for the Indian cricket team at the age of seventeen years. Along with her family, she lives in Hyderabad, Telangana.

School:

She completed her schooling from Keyes high school for girls in Secunderabad. She did her higher studies from Kasturba Gandhi junior collegefor women in West Marredpally. In her school days she devoted her time in cricket coaching along with her brother in her school itself. She was often found to practice with the male cricketers in the nets.

Career:

Mithali started her journey of passion for cricket by playing with some star figures like Purnima Rau, Anjum Chopra and Anju Jain. She is known for her right handed batting style and legbreak as her bowling style. Under the mentorship of Sampath Kumar, at the age age of nine years, she was selected to play for the state in the sub- juniors tournament and became the youngest to do so.At the age of fourteen she was considered among the probable candidate for the 1997 Women’s world cup, but at that time she could not make her way into the team. At the age of seventeen she got into the squad of International cricket team of women. Mithali Raj led her team to their first World cup final in the year 2005, but could not make themselves to get victory over the Australian team. In the year 2013 Women’s World cup she was considered to be the number one cricketer in the ODI among the women players. Again in the year 2017 she led her team to the finals but lost the match just by nine runs against the England team. In the year 2019, September, she announced her retirement from T20I cricket and she promises to achieve the world cup for the Indian nation by 2021.Mithali was appointed as a batting consultant for women’s national cricket team, in this way her coaching career started. 

Records Made by Her:

She is known as the lady Tendulkar of the Indian cricket team due to her high run scoring. Mithali proved her brilliant performance by scoring over 1,000 runs in world cups and she is the first Indian and fifth women to do so. She made her record to play most consecutive women’s one day internationals for a team, almost 109 matches were played by her. She held the record for the highest individual score by an Indian woman cricketer in a world cup match. She proved herself to be the best captain any women cricket team could ever have. 

Media Life:

Recently a biopic is in planning to be done on MIthali Raj’s life after seeing her amazing performance in the 2017 women’s cricket world cup. She dreams her story to be casted in the hope of inspiring more lives through her own story. Especially she wants the young girls to take up sports as their career and to bring some glory to the nation. She considers Priyanka Chopra to be a great choice to present her character in the movie as she could match her personalities with her. In the year 2017, Mithali appeared on the show of KaunBnegaCrorepati, that day one of her dreams came true by sharing the same platform with Amitabh Bachchan.

Personal Life:

Apart from playing cricket, she considers dancing and reading as her hobbies. Her first love was for dance, but she quit it at the age of eight and choose cricket as her main priority. Up to class 8, she used to practice Bharat Natyam at home whenever she found some time. She considers herself to be honored for whatever titles the team has provided to her and she feels extremely thankful to everyone for having faith in her throughout her journey. Mithali considers herself to be lucky enough to have such a supporting family always beside her, the constant support of her parents helped her a lot to achieve all the success in her life.

Awards and Achievements:

• In the year 2003 Arjuna Award.
  
• In the year 2015 Padma Shri.
  
• In the year 2017, Youth sports icon of excellence award and Vogue Sportsperson of the year.