Worcester: India women’s ODI captain Mithali Raj shut down the harsh criticism around her strike rate stating that she reacts according to the role assigned to her instead of looking for any validation from people.
Coming into international action after more than one year, Mithali has been in fine form hitting three consecutive ODI half-centuries against England. While India lost the first two games to let go of the series, Mithali’s unbeaten 75 in the final ODI helped the Women in Blue register their first win in the tour.
She also surpassed former England captain Charlotte Edwards as the highest run-getter across formats in women’s cricket. Mithali currently has 10,337 runs. “I do read that the criticism is about my strike rate. I have said earlier also that I don’t seek validation from people,” Mithali was quoted as saying to Cricinfo.
“I have played a for a long time and I know I have such responsibility in the team. I don’t look to please people, I’m here to play the role that is assigned to me, accordingly by the team management for the team.”
Mithali further stated that when chasing any target, batters need to target the correct bowlers, lengths, and areas. The right-hander stated that being in a good form, she needs to utilise it to the fullest as the batting department revolves around her.
“When you are chasing a target, you pick your bowlers, you pick the length, you pick the areas. Because I’m in good flow, I need to make the best use of me in the middle and since the entire batting order revolves me that is the job given to me by the coach,” Mithali added.
“I look forward to not get bogged down because I know the top-order is already at the dugout and it was important for me to understand how I can maneuver to get the match as close as possible with the batters yet to come and the one I had in the middle. I guess I need to give credit also to Sneh Rana because that partnership was very, very crucial. She kept her calm, which is very important in such situations.”
