Former India skipper Shantha Rangaswamy praised the current India Women’s ODI and Test captain Mithali Raj for becoming the leading run-scorer across formats in women’s cricket. Rangaswamy also called her the “Sachin Tendulkar” of women’s cricket and said her record is here to stay.
The right-hand batter who is already the highest run-getter in the ODI format on Saturday surpassed former England captain Charlotte Edwards to become the highest run getter across formats. They are the only two women cricketers who have more than 10000 runs.
“Her records speak for themselves. What she has achieved is comparable to the achievements of the great Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar. It is safe to say that she will be lonely at the top for a long time. I don’t see her record being broken anytime soon,” Shantha, who is also a BCCI Apex Council member, told PTI.
Mithali Raj averages a staggering 51.80 in the 50-over format, and on Saturday scored her fourth successive half-century and led India to a consolation win over England Women in the third ODI.
The former skipper Rangaswamy then defended Raj from all the criticism she received for her low strike rates along with the whole Indian batting unit as the former felt it was uncalled for.
“Strike rate only comes into the picture when you are doing well as a batting group. Barring yesterday, she hardly had any support in the series. If she wasn’t around, the team would have struggled to reach even 200,” the 67-year-old said.
After losing the three-match ODI series 1-2, the next assignment for the Indian team is the three-match T20I series that is slated to begin from July 9 (Friday) at County Ground in Northampton.
(With PTI inputs)
