“I love sleeping and to inculcate the habit of early rising, my dad forced me to take up a sport. That was the only reason I started playing cricket in the first place. And thereafter it continued.”

Indian former cricketer

Mithali Raj is an Indian former cricketer, active in the modern era, who captained the national team from 2004 to 2022. She is known as the leading run-scorer in women’s international cricket and for her long service at the top of the game. Her career brought wide recognition in India and beyond, with honors including the Arjuna Award in 2003, the Wisden Leading Woman Cricketer in the World award in 2017, the Padma Shri in 2015, and the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in 2021. ESPN ranked her among the greatest female cricketers of all time.