Mithali Raj’s T20 retirement brings curtains to a career that glittered everywhere where cricket was worshipped and looked up to as a fascinating uniter of people. At the same time, it leaves tremendous potential to debate endlessly whether the starry figure of Indian Cricket could’ve stretched her run in the sport’s briefest format for a longer duration?
While surely, one can say and with tremendous confidence that are batswomen who collect runs freely and with a higher strike rate, in Mithali Raj, Indian Cricket had a beacon of excellence that continued persisting in a format that’s driven by fireworks. A graceful exhibitor of a wide range of strokes on either side of the wicket, Mithali collected runs, well, lots of runs in T20s without eschewing the dignity you’d associate from a batswoman who put a high price on her wicket. Mithali Raj’s T20 retirement, therefore, puts a full-stop on a tall order of runs and records that one can’t help but marvel at.
At the same time, it compels you to tip your hat in admiration to a cricketer, who took guard in T20 cricket for the first time in 2006.
She wasn’t just the scorer of 2,364 T20 runs, but ends her remarkable run as the highest-scorer from India in the format, across both men’s and women’s game.
Not even Rohit or Virat have scored as many in cricket’s flamboyant template.
In scoring 17 fifties, including the highest score of 97, a belter of a knock that made Malaysia crumble under immense pressure, Mithali Raj held center-stage amid a giant order of run-scorers; most of whose cricketing careers were akin to those of newborns in front of the Jodhpur-born’s immensity of experience. Interestingly, Mithali Raj’s T20 retirement comes at a time with young guns in Smriti Mandhana and the more recent star, Jemimah Rodriguez blossoming, ready to take their career to the next big flight.
One can’t, therefore, avoid the temptation to introspect whether Mithali staying on in T20s for longer would’ve cultivated her keen observers; figures wearing the same
There are cricketers you regard for their sheer statistical achievements. There are those that are respected for their conduct and standing in the game. But few happen to be respected as much for their on-field achievements as they are regarded for their stature off the 22 yards.
Mithali will be carved in an elite list that’s inspired as much as it entertained.
For someone who’s seen the dramatic transition of Indian Women’s cricket, the wearers of the proud sky-blue jersey graced by the likes of former captains such as Anjum Chopra before finally coming a long way in seeing Mandhana and Harman shoulder the responsibility of run-scoring, you felt as if Mithali was the calm balancer of sorts.
In Mithali Raj, 36, India have been served well by a giant of the game, someone who’s respected by her colleagues just as much as she is revered by her contemporaries and figures in the opposite camps.
Mithali also captained the Indian side in as many as 32 T20 internationals, locking horns with the greats of the modern game, such as Lanning, Taylor, Bates, Perry, and Mir.
Having represented her country in every single edition of the World T20, starting 2009 until the last edition, bagged by Australia.
Now as Mithali has opted to focus her energies for the Women’s 50-over World Cup, slated for 2021, one’s got to respect her decision. Maybe in her stepping back- some sort of self-preservation- she’s opting to contribute more where the ultimate glory lies for India.