Mithali Raj: the sleepy girl who led Indian cricket for years

A morning routine at a Secunderabad academy

Mithali Raj grew up in Secunderabad, Telangana. Her father, Dorai Raj, had served in the Indian Air Force. As an eight-year-old, Mithali loved to sleep in. To break that habit, her father started taking her along to her older brother's cricket coaching at St John's Academy in Secunderabad.

At first she simply sat near the boundary and did her homework. During breaks she would hit a few balls along the ground. The academy coach, Jyothi Prasad, a former first-class cricketer, noticed something in that casual hitting. He suggested she train properly under Sampath Kumar, who coached Hyderabad's age-group teams.

Mithali was also a trained Bharatanatyam dancer. Around the age of ten, cricket training became so demanding that she had to give up dance. She later said that dance was her personal passion, but she had to choose, and her family had already invested heavily in cricket.

“Like all journeys, this one too must come to an end. Today is the day I retire from all forms of international cricket.”

— Mithali Raj, via International Cricket Council

An early start on the world stage

The hard training paid off quickly. In 1999, at the age of 16, she made her one-day international debut against Ireland in England and scored an unbeaten 114.

Three years later, in August 2002, India were touring England after a difficult trip. Earlier on that tour they had been bowled out for 26 in a one-day game, and rain had washed out the first Test. In the second Test at Taunton, the 19-year-old Mithali batted for close to ten hours and faced 407 balls. She made 214, which was then the highest individual score in women's Test cricket. It was only her third Test.

A captain who first learnt to wait

In 2003 Mithali was offered the captaincy and turned it down because she felt she was not ready. She later called this one of her best decisions, as it let her learn from the then captain, Mamatha Maben.

When she did take charge, she led India to the 2005 Women's World Cup final. In the semi-final she scored an unbeaten 91 while carrying a right knee ligament injury. India lost the final to Australia, but the team had reached a stage it had never reached before.

Under her captaincy India won four Asia Cup titles in a row between 2005 and 2012, and won a Test series in England in 2014. She went on to captain India in 155 one-day internationals, the most by any woman, and she holds the record for the most matches as captain in Women's World Cups.

2017, and a career that kept going

The 2017 World Cup in England showed how long her form could last. During that tournament she scored seven fifties in a row, a world record. She opened the campaign with 71 against England, made a century against New Zealand in a must-win match, and finished as India's leading run-scorer. India reached the final and lost to England by nine runs. She is the only Indian captain, man or woman, to lead the country to two one-day World Cup finals.

She retired from T20 internationals in 2019 to focus on one-day cricket. On 8 June 2022 she announced her retirement from all international cricket. She finished with 7,805 one-day runs in 232 matches and 10,868 international runs in all. Her one-day career lasted 22 years and 274 days, the longest in the sport for any player, man or woman. In November 2021 she received the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, becoming the first woman cricketer to get India's highest sporting honour.

The skills and habits that made the difference

Routine came first. Her cricket started as a fix for a sleeping habit, and her training became highly structured. Coaches had her practise straight hitting in narrow school corridors, middle the ball with a single stump, and train in the evening in low light. Some coaching days ran for six hours. Her family planned around cricket so fully that she missed school trips and many family events.

She also worked on her mind. During the 2017 World Cup, photos of her reading a book while waiting to bat went viral. She explained that reading kept her calm, so she did not get nervous just before walking in. Because the rules did not allow a Kindle, she borrowed a book from the team's fielding coach.

Her father had another lesson for her as a child: try to finish your innings not out, whatever the score. And as a leader she showed self-awareness, saying no to the captaincy until she believed she was ready. Teammates have described her as a friend, not just a captain.