Mithali Raj
Debut: ODI v Ireland Women, 1999
Internationals so far: Tests – 10, ODIs – 158, T20Is – 52
Awards won: Arjuna Award (2003), Padma Shri (2015)
Mithali Raj is certainly among the most prominent women cricketers to have played for India in recent times. The 33-year old, has been playing international cricket since 1999; she made her international debut as a 16-year old, and along with Ashish Nehra and Harbhajan Singh in the Indian men’s cricket team, are the three Indian cricketers to have made their debuts in the 1990s who are still playing international cricket. Phew!
At one point in time, Mithali was the world record holder for the highest individual score in Women’s Test cricket; on the tour of England in 2002, she struck 214 against England Women at Taunton.
Mithali, who can open the innings but prefers to bat in the middle order, is currently India’s highest-ranked batter in the ICC Player Rankings; she is ranked 6th in the ICC Player Rankings for Women’s ODIs and ranked 5th in the ICC Player Rankings for Women’s T20s. She is currently the second-highest run-getter in Women’s ODIs.
She recently led Railways to the title in the Domestic T20 championship and followed it up with captaining India to a historic 2-1 series victory in the T20 series in Australia.
Jhulan Goswami
Debut: ODI v England Women, 2002
Internationals so far:
Tests – 10, ODIs – 143, T20Is – 49
Awards won: Arjuna
Award (2010), Padma Shri (2012)
The 5 feet 11 inches tall Jhulan Goswami has opened the bowling for India from the time she made her debut in early 2002. Born in Bengal and nicknamed Babul, Jhulan is employed by the national carrier Air India and represents Bengal in Indian domestic cricket. She was named the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year in 2007 and captained India briefly, between 2008 and 2011.
The 33-year old Jhulan is on the brink of becoming the highest wicket-taker in Women’s ODIs; she is currently 7 wickets short of the record held by Australia’s Cathryn Fitzpatrick. Jhulan has the chance to become the world-record holder in the 3-match ODI series in Australia which begins at Canberra on February 2.
Harmanpreet Kaur
Debut: ODI v Pakistan Women, 2009
Internationals so far:
Tests – 2, ODIs – 49, T20Is – 56
Harmanpreet Kaur is an all-rounder who bats right-handed in the middle order and bowls off-spin.
The 26-year old Harmanpreet was born in Punjab and started her career playing domestic cricket for Punjab before she was signed up by Indian Railways. She is currently ranked 7th and is the second-highest ranked Indian batter in the ICC Player Rankings in Women’s ODIs.
‘Harman’ as she is fondly called, made 46 from 31 balls and helped India to a win in the first T20I against Australia in the recently concluded series.
Smriti Mandhana
Debut: T20I v Bangladesh Women, 2013
Internationals so far:
Tests – 2, ODIs – 15, T20Is – 13
19-year old Smriti Mandhana is a left-handed opening batsman. She hails from Maharashtra and captained the state team to the Super League of the Domestic T20 competition. A technically correct batter, Smriti made her international debut for India when she was still 16 years old.
Smriti was the top run-getter in the domestic T20 competition this season, with an aggregate of 224 runs in seven innings.
In India’s recently concluded successful T20 series against Australia, Smriti made scores of 29, 22 and 14.
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