Purely up to Mithali, Jhulan to choose when to hang their boots: Mamatha Maben

Source From: ENT 2022-03-30 04:12:05

Former India skipper Mamatha Maben believes that it should be left to Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami when they want to retire from all forms of cricket.


After India's campaign in the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup ended in a heartbreaking loss to South Africa at Hagley Oval, both Raj and Goswami chose to remain hesitant over the future of their illustrious playing careers.

"It's purely left up to them to choose when they hang up their boots. But, definitely, I feel this is the last World Cup (for them). About (the) future, we don't know what's on their minds and on the minds of the administration. We should leave it to them to decide what they need to do and how they do it," said Maben in an interview with IANS.

Maben, who saw only the last two balls of the thrilling match due to her busy schedule, refused to pinpoint Deepti Sharma's no-ball in the final over as the main reason for the three-wicket loss.

"At the end of the day, we can't pinpoint that one particular incident (Deepti no-ball). There were a lot of incidents preceding that where we let the match go so close. We could have handled things much better, especially in last 8-10 overs (with the ball) where the match was in our grip. From there, we let it lose a little.

"There was a phase (with ball) where I won't say we were in total control but we had an upper hand. From there, we let things slip and it became very tight. You never know, that last ball could have gone for two. But I thought when Harry (Harmanpreet) took the catch, 90 per cent it was in our favour and then the no-ball.

"What I am saying is that no-ball just happened; you can't point out. There were many other things that we could have done better."

Pace all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar was the most impressive youngster for Maben from India's campaign in the World Cup. Vastrakar made 167 runs with the bat while picking 10 wickets with the ball and shared a crucial 122-run stand for the seventh wicket with Sneh Rana to rescue India from 114/6 to a match-winning score of 244/7 against Pakistan.