Mithali Raj and team reveal their dressing room stories during the ICC WWC

The Indian Women’s team had a remarkable World Cup campaign this year even though they could not cross the final hurdle. The Mithali Raj led side lost the final match against hosts England at the iconic Lords Stadium but their incredible journey won a billion hearts.

Apart from the good cricket played by the Indians, there were other issues that caught media attention during the tournament. One of them was the picture of Mithali Raj reading a book before coming on to bat in the very first match against England. As the picture went viral on the internet people became a fan of her coolness. The Indian skipper has finally opened up on the incident.

What Mithali had to say:

“I don’t like to prepare myself ahead of the match as I like to play according to the situation. I feel that if I am calm and composed while going to bat, I will be able to play much better cricket. That is why I carry a book along with me. I read a lot during the course of the tournament as it was a long one, but in that particular match, I was reading the biography of Nasser Hussain,” said Raj.

Mithali Raj was also seen dancing in the dug out along with team mate Veda Krishnamurthy during their semi-final clash against the Australians. The match was a high intensity one the pressure of the semi final was always there but these two Indians chose to deal with it differently. Speaking about the same, Mithali said “Veda and I were signing songs while sitting in the dug out during Harmanpreet Kaur’s unbelievable innings against Australia. Veda is a really good dancer and she couldn’t hold herself back and I decided to join in as well. If I remember it correctly, the song was ‘Shape of You’.”

India excelled primarily in the batting department but Ekta Bisht was one player who performed brilliantly with the ball. Her performance against Pakistan was the most memorable one which helped India defend their small target.

Speaking to Cricketnext, Ekta said “When Pakistan restricted us to a low score, we spoke among ourselves that the match isn’t lost yet as we are yet to bowl. There wasn’t any pressure on us as such but the one thing that was playing on our minds was that we were playing Pakistan and the fans back home must be expecting a lot from us,”

“I managed to pick five wickets to help India win the match. But this is not the first time as I picked a five wicket haul against Pakistan early in my career as well. So, now I have started to think that whenever we will play Pakistan, I will take five wickets,” she added.