Jhulan Goswami retires from International Cricket as a leading wicket-taker (355 Wickets) in Women's Internationals. Top Twitter reactions as Jhulan Goswami bids adieu to the game.
India Women’s legendary cricketer, Jhulan Goswami bid adieu to international cricket having played her last match on September 24 against England in the 3rd ODI at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. Emotions ran high in the Indian camp during the farewell game of perhaps one of the greatest Indian bowlers and one of the world’s best players.
Great final hurrah for Jhulan Goswami
India’s skipper Harmanpreet Kaur was in tears as the team gathered around to present Jhulan with a memento before the start of the game at Lord’s and the duo shared a heartfelt hug. This shows how much Jhulan meant to the entire women’s team and particularly Kaur who credited the former to be her go to person whenever she was going through a rough time.
The England players gave Goswami a guard of honour when she came out to bat for one final time and once she bowled her final ball in international cricket, the entire Indian team came to hug the champion pacer. Her presence in the team must have been so invaluable to the others.
Jhulan is someone who has inspired millions of young girls in India and across the globe to take up this beautiful sport of cricket. She was one of the shining lights for India and along with Mithali Raj, Jhulan has taken Indian women’s cricket forward.
Goswami got a fitting farewell after a glittering career. India Women’s team defeated the hosts England in the 3rd match at Lord’s to whitewash the series 3-0 and this is the first time since 1999 that India have won an ODI series in English soil. Incidentally, India’s win in 1999 came during Mithali Raj’s debut ODI series.
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Humble Beginnings
Jhulan Goswami was born in the town of Chakdaha in West Bengal in the year 1982. Like most people in Bengal, Goswami was a football fan. She only took up cricket at the age of 15 after watching legendary Australia batter Belinda Clark play in the ICC Women’s World Cup 1997.
Since then there was no looking back for the Chakdaha Express. She went on to make her international debut in a WODI game against England in Chennai in 2002 and was the pace spearhead for the team ever since. Over time, she was regarded as one of the fastest women bowlers of all time and ended up arguably as the greatest women pacer in cricket.
Jhulan was the 3rd highest wicket taker in ICC Women’s World Cup 2005 (her maiden WC) picking 14 wickets in 7 games as India ended being the runners-up in the tournament. She played a key role in India winning their first ever Test series win in England in the 2006/07 series by taking a 10-fer (5/33 and 5/48) in the 2nd Test in Taunton.
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Captaincy and taking the team forward
As many of the then Indian senior cricketers like Anjum Chopra, Anju Jain and Neetu David among others, made way for youngsters to stake a claim for a position in the team, the onus fell on the experienced duo of Mithali and Jhulan to inspire and take the team forward.
The pacer took over captaincy duties from Mithali Raj in 2008 and held the position for over three years before handing it back to Raj in 2011. However, the records she made and the impact she created along the way in her glorious journey can’t be understated. The only missing piece in both Mithali and Jhulan’s cabinet is an ICC trophy which they came close to on more than one occasion. India Women finished runners-up in ICC World Cup 2005 and 2017, where both played an integral part.
Even at the fag end of her career, Jhulan Goswami’s career graph has gone only up. Since the year 2017, she has taken 78 wickets in 53 ODIs. Such has been her consistency throughout her career and she will be dearly missed by the team as a mentor, leader and player.
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Numbers from Jhulan Goswami’s scintillating 20-year long international career
Format | Matches | Wickets | Best Figures | Average |
Test | 12 | 44 | 5/25 | 17.36 |
ODI | 204 | 255 | 6/31 | 22.04 |
T20I | 68 | 56 | 5/11 | 21.94 |
Apart from being the frontline bowler that she was for India, Jhulan has always been a useful contributor for India with the bat lower down the order, with 1924 runs across formats consisting of three half-centuries.
Jhulan Goswami is also the proud holder of the following records:
Most wickets in Women’s international cricket - 355
Most wickets in Women’s ODI cricket - 255
Most Test wickets for India - 44
Most wickets in Women’s World Cups - 43
2nd Most appearances in Women’s ODIs - 204
Won the ICC Women’s cricketer of the year in 2007
Jhulan has a stunning record across formats and leaves behind a great legacy which will certainly be a challenge for anyone to surpass.
We have seen a new crop of Indian girls coming through the ranks in clusters and performing admirably in the recent years. One of the major reasons for this growth must be the impact created by Jhulan Goswami in the last two decades in international cricket. She has been one of the major influence for young girls to take up cricket as a professional sport.
One can hope there will be many more bowlers like Jhulan Goswami emerging from India who take the team in a positive direction.
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