5 Indian women cricketers whom you should respect like the men

May 26, 2016 at 2:50 PM

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5 Indian women cricketers whom you should respect like the men

Just take one quiz question: How many players can you name from the Indian women’s cricket team at present? You remember Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, maybe?

If only this particular question would have been about the men’s team, most of us even would have remembered the batting and bowling averages of the players, too.

Being a cricketer in India is seen as a respectable profession, and why not, when it is the most popular sport in the country and the highest paying, as well? But sadly not so much if you are a woman. Because frankly speaking, no one cares to bother about the women’s team. Not the sponsors, not the viewers.

To be fair, without an equal amount of opportunity for the Women cricketers and only 10 to 15 designated International ODIs per year, it’s really hard to make the women’s team popular among the masses. But what we can do is, at least be informed of the Indian women players who made a mark in International cricket.

So, here we have picked top 5 Indian women Cricketers who actually deserve as much respect and fame as any other sportsperson in this country and if you are a true cricket lover, you have to know these women very well.

Anjum Chopraanjum

Anjum Chopra has played 116 ODIs and 12 Tests for Indian women’s cricket team. This lady belonging to a family of sportspersons is reckoned worldwide as the face of women’s cricket. she played various sports at an early age. She represented her school and college team in Athletics, Basketball, swimming. She even represented Delhi State team in basketball nationals.

Charting out a niche in the male-dominated sport in the country, Anjum has broken the glass ceiling to be recognized as the face of women’s cricket. Anjum Chopra happens to be a multi-faceted personality having many hats of a player, captain, consultant, motivational speaker, actor, and author. She even participated in the reality TV show ‘Fear Factor’. Anjum Chopra is also a part of the 26 members strong team of commentators for the Indian Premier League.

Anjum has co-authored world’s first coffee table book titled ‘Women’s Cricket World- ‘A Journey from 1745- 2013’. The book showcases the world history of the sport to its present-day under the International Cricket Council.

Diana EduljiDiana

This Mumbai-born former Indian women’s cricket team captain is regarded as the greatest Indian women cricketer of all time. She was the captain of the Indian women’s team for 3 years when very few believed it as a serious career option.

She was actually drawn to sports at an early age. Diana grew up playing cricket with a tennis ball in the railway colony where she lived. She then went on to play basketball and table tennis at the junior national level, before moving into cricket. At a cricket camp hosted by former Test cricketer Lala Amarnath, ‘ she honed her skills.

At that time, women’s cricket was becoming more popular in India. Diana then played for the Railways and then the Indian national cricket team where she was a successful slow left-arm orthodox bowler. She played her first series in 1975. In 1978, she was made the captain of the team. With 120 wickets, she remains the highest wicket taker of the game. Diana received India’s then greatest sports honour award, the Arjuna Award in 1983. The Government of India even awarded her the civilian honour of Padma Shri in 2002.

Mithali Raj      India Women:

For many, Mithali is the “Tendulkar of Indian women’s cricket”, as she is currently the all-time leading run-scorer for India in all formats, including Tests, ODIs, and T20Is. Mithali Raj hails from Rajasthan and regarded as the most successful Indian captain ever. Under her captaincy, the Indian team reached the 2005 women’s world cup final and won the test series in England. She is an Arjuna Award and Padma Shri winner and is considered the best female batsman of all times.

She made her One Day International debut in 1999 against Ireland scoring an unbeaten 114 runs. She made her Test debut in the 2001-02 season against South Africa at Lucknow. On 14 August 2002, a 19-year-old Mitali, in her third Test, broke Karen Rolton’s world’s highest individual Test score of 209* at that time, scoring a new high of 214 against England in the second and final Test at County Ground, Taunton. 

Jhulan GoswamiJhulan+Goswami

An integral part of the Indian women’s cricket team, Jhulan is renowned for both her batting and bowling (right arm medium) brilliance. She has a Test bowling average of less than 20 which is not at all an easy feat. In the 2006-07 season, she guided the Indian team to first test series win in England.

She was awarded ICC Women’s Player of the Year in 2007 for his excellent performance and the M.A. Chidambaram trophy for Best Women Cricketer in 2011. Recently she was replaced by Mitali Raj as the captain of the Indian Women’s Cricket team. A Padma Shri Awardee, Jhulan Goswami also holds the distinction of being the fastest bowler in the world after Cathryn Fitzpatrick retired.

Harmanpreet Kaurharampreet_kaur

Harmanpreet Kaur, a youngster from Punjab holds a decent batting average of 37 in ODIs. She has become one of the brightest young prospects for Indian women’s team. With age on her side, the Punjab lady is destined to take over the captaincy sometime in the future.

For far too long, Harmanpreet has been living in the shadow of her illustrious senior Mithali. It isn’t surprising, considering Mithali is not only the captain of the team but also the most consistent with the bat at the top of the order for more than six seasons.

Over the past two years or so, Harmanpreet has slowly but steadily risen through the ranks, notching up a string of consistent scores. While Mithali is a more elegant batsman with a perfect textbook technique and the penchant to play in the ‘V’, Harmanpreet has based her game on extravagance and insouciance.

 

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