After India’s heartbreaking defeat to South Africa and exit from 2022 ICC Women’s World Cup in league stage, Captain Mithali Raj replied to the questions on her retirement from cricket matches. Though the skipper had hit a half-century, but South Africa Women managed to win by three wickets to knock India Women out of the tournament. Following this, there have been murmurs that the World Cup would be Mithali’s final assignment as an India player, but the 39-year-old remained tight-lipped on her plans for the future.
In the post-match press conference, the veteran batter was asked if retirement was on the cards for her after the exit from the World Cup. ‘I’ve not really planned much about the future. For us, as players and athletes, when you have a disappointment in a campaign which ends like this in a World Cup where you have really prepared very hard over a year, it takes time for players to accept and then move on from there to whatever the future holds for each and every player’, she replied.
Asked again by a reporter if this was the last we saw of her in the Indian jersey, she said- ‘it would not be appropriate for me to comment anything on that, considering the kind of game we just played and as I said, the emotions are still there. So, it needs to settle down before I could have clarity on that and give an answer to that’.
Also read: Will Smith smacks presenter Chris Rock during Oscars 2022 | Watch video
This was also possibly the last time another India veteran, Jhulan Goswami, played in a World Cup, but unfortunately for her and the team, she was ruled out of the match against South Africa Women with a side strain suffered in training. Mithali Raj said that India missed her experience in a crunch match against such a tough opposition. ‘I’m sure she would have made a difference, because with so many years of experience, playing different teams on different surfaces and in similar pressure situations. Having a senior player like her to lead the bowling attack, clearly it would have made a difference’, the Indian team captain said.
‘But having said that, I’m sure she might be feeling a little disappointed that the last game of the Indian team she could not be part of, but then that’s how it is. She had a side strain during the training session and she couldn’t recover’, she added. She further said that she wanted to qualify for the semi-finals so that Jhulan could have another game at the tournament. Goswami, during the course of this year’s tournament, became the highest ever wicket-taker in the history of the Women’s World Cup.
Post Your Comments