Mithali Raj in all likelihood might end her T20I career after the home series against England. However, she will keep on playing ODIs of which she currently is the skipper. According to the media outlets, the 36-year-old veteran will not play once the series against England concludes which begins on March 4.
“Mithali understands that skipper Harmanpreet Kaur will like to concentrate on building a team for the 2020 World T20 and that she is unlikely to feature in that tournament,” a senior BCCI official told PTI. “But a player of her stature should get a warm send-off and that is likely to be against England,” the official said.
“It is still not sure whether she would like to play the full series against England or like former men’s team pacer Ashish Nehra, play the first game of the series and retire,” the official further added.
Mithali Raj’s place in the T20I side is doubtful due to her slow strike-rate which also led to her being dropped for the all-important Women’s World T20 semi-final against England.
When Mithali Raj surpassed Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s run tally:
Recently, India’s woman cricketer Mithali Raj became the leading run-scorer in T20Is surpassing Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli but the media hardly praised her achievements. Tagged as the ‘Sachin Tendulkar of women’s cricket’, Mithali has by far been the best batswoman, that the Indian cricket has ever produced. She has proved that she is worth the weight in gold.
Mithali Raj now has garnered 2283 runs in the truncated version of the game playing 85 matches at an impressive average of 37.42, with the best score of 97 with 17 half-centuries to her name. As far as Rohit Sharma is concerned, he has scored 2238 runs from 91 matches at an average of 32.43, with a career-best of 118.
Mithali Raj was already well ahead of Virat Kohli in the list and was trailing to Rohit Sharma by a little margin. Indian captain Virat Kohli now has 2167 runs in 65 matches.
