Kolkata: India’s 2022 ICC Women’s World Cup campaign came to an end on Sunday with a sad loss to South Africa in their final league encounter. Despite Mithali Raj’s half-century, South Africa Women won by three wickets to eliminate Indian Women from the tournament.
There have been rumors that Mithali will retire from cricket after the World Cup, but the seasoned batter has been tight-lipped about her future plans. After the World Cup exit, the 39-year-old was asked if she planned to retire during the post-match press conference.
“I’ve not really planned much about the future. For us, as players and athletes, when you have a disappointment in a campaign which ends like this in a World Cup where you have really prepared very hard over a year, it takes time for players to accept and then move on from there to whatever the future holds for each and every player,” she replied.
When asked if this was the last time we saw her in an Indian jersey, she replied: “It would not be appropriate for me to comment anything on that, considering the kind of game we just played, and as I said, the emotions are still there. So, it needs to settle down before I could have clarity on that and give an answer to that.”
Another India veteran, Jhulan Goswami, may have participated in her last World Cup match, but she was pulled out of the match against South Africa Women due to a side strain experienced in training, which was sad for her and the squad.
“I’m sure she would have made a difference because with so many years of experience, playing different teams on different surfaces and in similar pressure situations. Having a senior player like her to lead the bowling attack, clearly, it would have made a difference,” Mithali said talking about Goswami.
“But having said that, I’m sure she might be feeling a little disappointed that the last game of the Indian team she could not be part of, but then that’s how it is. She had a side strain during the training session and she couldn’t recover,” she added.
Mithali went on to say that she wanted to make the semi-finals so Jhulan could play another game in the tournament.
“I really wanted to win this game so we could give her another game in the semi-finals but it didn’t go our way,” she said.
During this year’s tournament, Goswami set a new record for the most wickets taken in the Women’s World Cup’s history.
