2022 World Cup Will Be My Swansong: Mithali Raj

Champion Indian cricketer and the current captain of the Women’s ODI team, Mithali Raj, has said that the upcoming 50-over World Cup in New Zealand in 2022 will be her swansong from international cricket.

Mithali Raj made her International debut way back in 1999 and during the course of her 22-year-old career, she impinged herself as one of the greatest that this beautiful game has ever seen.

The most capped women ODI cricketer and the highest run-getter in the 50-over game, Mithali Raj has led India to two World Cup finals- 2005 and 2017- and she will be hoping to cap off her career with a World Cup triumph.

“It’s been 21 years of international cricket and I know 2022 is my swansong, The World Cup,” Mithali Raj said during the virtual launch of the book ‘1971: The Beginning of India’s Cricketing Greatness’, published by Harper Collins and co-authored by Boria Majumdar and Gautam Bhattacharya.

With the Covid-19 pandemic wreaking havoc and the Indian women’s team not playing any international cricket for a year, Mithali reckoned that the last one year of her career has been equal to the 20 years of her playing cricket.
“The last year is equal to the 20 years of my international cricket,” she added.

But amid diffilcult times, the champion cricketer has made it a point to work on her fitness and the fact that she has been in a good emotional and mental space has helped her.

“I know we are in difficult times but it takes a lot out of me to keep working on my fitness. I am not getting any younger, in fact I am getting older and I know the importance of fitness,” Mithali Raj said.

”The importance of being in a very good emotional and mental set-up, knowing that there will be very few tours before the World Cup.” she added.

Ahead of the upcoming World Cup, India Women are set to tour England, Australia, New Zealand besides hosting the West Indies on home soil and Mithali Raj reckoned that every series that she and her team plays from now will be a building block for the quadrennial event next year.

”Every tour (from now on) is important for me as a batter as to how I am going to get the team to regroup and build a team for the World Cup,” she said. “Yeah, I am very optimistic looking at the girls and in the manner they have been working with whatever facilities they have in these times and focus and enthusiasm that a series is coming up.” she signed off.

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