Exclusive: Mithali Raj Reveals Her Biggest Achievement Off The Field

Mithali Raj talks about her struggles in an exclusive interview. Former India skipper speaks candidly about the challenges she faced initially in her career and also throws some light on her biggest achievement off the field till now.

New Delhi: One of India’s most celebrated cricketers in the modern era, Mithali Raj is gearing up for another milestone in her career. After serving Indian cricket for 23 years, the veteran cricketer’s life has been adapted into a feature film ‘Shabaash Mithu’ which is up for release on July 15th. Before the release, Mithali, Taapsee Pannu (Actor portraying Mithali Raj on screen) and Srijit Mukherjee (Director) spoke to india.com and the entire ZEE group in an exclusive interview.

Former India skipper spoke candidly about the challenges she faced initially in her career and also threw some light on her biggest achievement off the field till now. When asked about that one biggest achievement off the field, the 39-year-old said, “When I joined the academy back then, there was not a single girl in the academy. However, now there are around 60-80 girls in the same academy who train around the year, not just for a couple of months. That is something which makes me really happy.”

Women cricketers in India with the likes of Jhulan Goswami, in the past, have talked about how they had to enrol themselves in an all-boys academy to get themselves noticed in a male-dominated sport like cricket. However, the situation is gradually improving as Women’s cricket has performed exceedingly well in the last couple of years. There have been talks around a dedicated Women’s IPL tournament as well.

The 39-year-old is the most capped woman player in ODIs and holds the record for most runs in the format, having aggregated 7,805 runs in 232 matches with seven centuries. In Tests, she has scored 699 runs in 12 matches with one century while in T20Is, she has 2,364 runs from 89 matches with 17 half-centuries.

Mithali also spoke about how it’s pretty difficult to trust someone with one’s life story and she found a strong narrator in Srijit Mukherjee and Taapsee. The team of Shaabash Mithu added that the film features many real incidents from Mithali’s life but they have also taken creative liberties to fit her long struggle and achievements in a short span of two-and-a-half hours.