“I want to get used to wearing the pads for longer hours,” Mithali Raj on wearing pads during jersey presentation

Mithali Raj wore training attire with pads on while other players wore casual clothes during jersey ceremony.

India women’s team’s Test and ODI captain Mithali Raj was seen wearing her white pads during the presentation ceremony in which the India women’s team for the one-off Test match against England on their upcoming tour of the UK received their new Test jerseys.

The legendary batter will be playing her first Test in 7 years when India takes on England in a one-off Test match, starting June 16. She is in quarantine along with the entire squad and the men’s team in a Mumbai hotel and will travel to England on a chartered plane and Indian women are scheduled to arrive in England on June 3.

Many eyebrows were raised on seeing Mithali wearing pads along with her practice attire during the presentation, while others like Jhulan Goswami and other players wore casual attire.

PICS- Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami present new Test jerseys to India women’s team members

Mithali revealed that she continued to wear the pads for the ceremony in a bid to get used to the feeling of wearing pads for long hours.

"Usually, I am the odd person out. I was trying to change something in my setup. I wanted the batting coach to address it. And we were doing a session before the meeting. And once the meeting started, Ramesh (Powar) did tell me that I could remove my pads. But I said 'no I want to get used to wearing the pads for longer hours. Let me go through the meeting wearing them'. So that was one of the reasons why I continued to wear that,” Mithali told Sports Today.

India women will also play 3 ODIs and as many T20Is in England in their first major overseas tour since the pandemic. They returned to international cricket after more than a year when South African women visited them for a limited-overs tour.