This review will reveal the top 10 fascinating facts about the Indian women’s cricket team that you might not have known till now.
Amazing Facts About The Indian Women’s Cricket Team
10 Amazing Facts About the Indian Women’s Cricket Team You Need To Know
The Indian Women’s Cricket team has improved to a great extent in recent times. Despite the best performance of the female cricketers, the women-in-blue haven’t won any ICC Trophy so far.
If we look at the records of the women’s national team in the ICC ODI World Cup, they concluded as the runner-up in 2005 and 2017 and were the semi-finalists in the years 1997 and 2000. Whereas in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, India qualified for the finals only once but concluded as the runner-up in 2020 and semi-finalist in 2009, 2010, 2018, and 2023.
At the same time, we must remember the long and inspiring adventure of the women’s cricket team in India which underwent several challenges before coming to the public’s attention in the ODI World Cup in 2017.
This review will reveal the top 10 fascinating facts about the Indian women’s cricket team that you might not have known till now.
10 Interesting Facts About the Indian Women’s Cricket Team
Here are the top 10 interesting facts about the Indian Women’s Cricket Team we should currently discuss:
1. First Indian Woman Cricketer to score a double ton in domestic cricket:
Smriti Mandhana, when she was 17 years old, became the first Indian woman batter to achieve an ODI double century in domestic cricket. Interestingly, she played with the bat gifted by the legendary Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid to her brother Shravan during his playing days at the junior level.
2. Harmanpreet Kaur’s clash with her father for cutting long hair:
Do you know that Harmanpreet Kaur’s father stopped speaking to her for many months after she cut her hair? Mainly, the Indian women’s team skipper cut her long hair since it was getting difficult to wash every day after practice. Later, Harmanpreet’s father gradually accepted it.
3. Jhulan Goswami’s favorite sport:
The former Indian woman cricketer Jhulan Goswami always loved football and was a true fan of Diego Maradona— a famous football player. Jhulan was extremely disappointed when Argentina, the team Diego Maradona played for, lost to Germany in the final match of the FIFA World Cup in 1990. During Jhulan’s schooling days, she often wrote Maradona’s name all over her books because she admired him so much.
4. Smriti Mandhana: A Left-Hand or Right-hand Batter
Although, Smriti Mandhana’s batting style is left-handed, in reality, she is a natural right-handed. This was because her father encouraged her to prefer left-handed batting; and he was a huge fan of left-handed batsmen in cricket.
Also, Smriti’s favorite cricketer is Kumar Sangakkara, who is also a left-handed batter. Despite being a natural right-handed batter, Smriti adopted left-handed batting to adapt to the playing style of the former Sri Lankan cricketer
5. Harmanpreet Kaur’s huge six in the 2009 World Cup:
During the IC World Cup 2009 in Australia, Harmaanpreet Kaur struck a huge six against the hosts; which led the authorities to suspect the amount of power with which she hit a long-distance covering six. Later her bat was sent to a laboratory for testing and Harmanpreet had to undergo a dope test to clear the suspicions.
6. Diana Edulji broke four front teeth:
As a teenager, Diana Edulji, the former Indian captain and current CoA member broke her four front teeth while participating in colony cricket. However, she succeeded in becoming a great cricketer despite the occurrence of this incident.
7. Mithali Raj Reading a Book:
An image of Mithali Raj’s image of reading the book “The Essential Rumi” has become viral during the ODI World Cup 2017. However, her interest in books has been a part of her life for a long time. It all started when she was a teenager and was traveling on a train journey. One of her senior teammates gave her a book by Sidney Sheldon to read. This experience marked the beginning of Mithali’s interest in reading books.
8. Punam Raut’s selection for Mumbai’s U-14 Boys Team :
As an opener, Punam Raut was almost selected for Mumbai’s Under-14 Boys Team, at the age of 12 years. However, Punam’s coach invited her for a trial match to assess her skills among the boys.
9. Jhulan Goswami’s 5-wicket haul Prank Interview:
In 2005, Jhulan Goswami achieved a 5-wicket haul against England Women—the visiting side, in an ODI match in Silchar. She received a phone call in her hotel room after the match stating that someone claimed to be a BBC journalist waiting to interview her.
Jhulan agreed and proceeded with a 30-minute interview. Later she found that it was a prank carried out by her teammates. Interestingly, her captain Mithali Raj acted as a BBC journalist on the phone, and other teammates were enjoying the conversation outside Jhulan’s door because they succeeded in fooling her.
10. Indian Women’s cricket team founded by a man:
Most of you wouldn’t be aware of the fact that Women’s cricket in India was founded by a man from Lucknow named Mahendra Kumar Sharma. He formed the Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI) in 1973 and ran the federation till 2006. Later the WCAI was merged with BCCI after ICC’s ruling.
