'Lady Sachin' of India, Mithali Raj Celebrates Her 39th Birthday Today

Mithali Dorai Raj was born on 3 December 1982, she is an Indian cricketer and the women's national team's Test and ODI captain. She was born in a Tamil Family in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.

Her father, Dorai Raj, was an Indian Air Force Airman (Warrant Officer), and her mother, Leela Raj.

Raj began playing the game when he was ten years old.  

Mithali Raj, India's best female hitter, has achieved several benchmarks over her illustrious professional history, which spans more than two decades. The only important accomplishment that the existing ODI captain lacks is the title of World Cup champion.

She is the lady with the highest runs in the game and the only Indian captain - male or female - to have guided the side to two 50-over World Cup finals. Raj retired from T20Is in September 2019 as India's all-time leading run scorer, having last led the team in the format at the 2016 T20 World Cup at home. 

Raj made her ODI debut at the age of 16 and quickly positioned herself as India's batting lynchpin. Her early skill, which flourished under the supervision of her previous instructor, the late Sampath Kumar, and a structured childhood in an army household, were the foundations of her copybook stroke play.

Her nimble footwork figured prominently on the field, becoming as much a characteristic of her batting as elegance and an unrivalled efficiency at plundering runs in the cover zone, thanks to her enthusiasm for Bharatanatyam. 

Two generations of Indian batters have been encouraged by her technical proficiency and aptitude to lead an innings at the top of the lineup in all three forms.

Both of these qualities were instrumental in her greatest Test score of 214 in 2002, as well as an undefeated 91 in the 2005 ODI World Cup semi-final, which she considers to be on par with her double-century. Raj eclipsed former England captain Charlotte Edwards becoming the top run-scorer in ODIs and the first woman to reach 6000 runs in the format during the 2017 ODI World Cup.

Her 409 runs in the event were second only to England opener Tammy Beaumont's, and she contributed to India's runners-up finish with three fifties and a century. 

Raj was caught in a controversy following her removal from the semi-finals of the 2018 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean. She charged then-head coach Ramesh Powar of being unjust and discriminating, as well as T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur's choice to back her removal.

Raj was also the first woman to play two decades of ODI cricket in October of this year, at the age of 36. 

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