Veteran India batter Mithali Raj has announced her retirement from T20 Internationals on Tuesday.
Having been India’s first-ever T20I captain in 2006, Mithali went on to play 88 more matches for the national side in the shortest format and scored 2364 runs in overall, including 17 fifties with a career-best 97 not out.
It is to note that Mithali — who led the Indian side in 32 T20Is, including the world cups in 2012, 2014 and 2016 — is the highest run-scorer for India in the format.
Her last T20I appearance came against England, in Guwahati, where she scored an unbeaten 32-ball 30. She has finished as the sixth-highest run-getter in T20Is, behind Suzie Bates (3100), Stafanie Taylor (2844), Charlotte Edwards (2605), Meg Lanning (2493) and Deandra Dottin (2368), and is the only Indian to have scored more than 2000 runs.
“After representing India in T20 internationals since 2006, I wish to retire from T20Is to focus my energies on readying myself for the 2021 One Day World Cup,” Mithali said in a BCCI press release, adding, “It remains my dream to win a World Cup for my country and I want to give it my best. I thank the BCCI for their continuous support and wish the Indian T20 team good luck as they prepare for the home series against South Africa Women.”