ICC Awards 2020: Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami Indian player nominees in women's cricket categories
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has come up with its nominations for various player of the decade awards. While Indians prominently feature in the men’s category, Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami were the only Indian cricketers to have been nominated in the women’s category awards.
Mithali Raj was the only Indian to have been nominated in the ICC Women’s Player of the Decade, and she was joined by fast bowler Jhulan Goswami in the ICC Women’s ODI Player of the Decade category. The Indian women’s team finished as the runners-up in the 2017 50-over World Cup, as they put up some memorable performances before stumbling in the final.
Among other prominent names in women’s cricket, Australia’s Ellyse Perry and Meg Lanning, New Zealand’s Suzie Bates and West Indies’ Stafanie Taylor have been nominated in both the Women’s Player of the Decade and Women’s ODI Player of the Decade.
Further, England’s Sarah Taylor has been picked as a nominee for the Women’s Player of the Decade. Ellyse Perry and Meg Lanning also feature in the Women’s T20I Player of the Decade shortlist.
Impressive records of Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami in women's cricket
Former India skipper Mithali Raj has featured in 10 Tests, 289 ODIs and 89 T20Is for India, scoring 663, 6888 and 2364 runs respectively. While Raj averages just above 50 in both Tests and ODIs, she has an average of 37.52 in the shortest format of the game.
Mithali Raj has one century in Tests and seven in ODIs to go with her 53 half-centuries. She is the only cricketer in the world to have scored over 6,000 runs in women’s ODIs.
Also, Mithali Raj is the only cricketer to have registered seven successive fifty-plus scores in women’s ODIs. She finished as the second highest run-scorer in the 2017 Women’s World Cup, totalling 409 runs in nine games at an average of 45.44.
As for Jhulan Goswami, the firebrand fast bowler has 225 wickets to her name in 182 ODIs at an average of 21.48 and a wonderful economy rate of 3.28. She led India’s bowling attack at the 2017 World Cup, and picked up 10 wickets in nine games at an average of 26.60 and an economy rate of 4.14.