The veteran Indian cricketer, Mithali Raj is arguably one of the most loved and popular Indian women cricketers. She has had an international career spanning over 20 years and she has achieved almost every possible batting record in the world of cricket.
Raj has led India to two World Cup finals, has a double century to her name in Test cricket and is the leading scorer in ODIs. Therefore, the cricket fraternity was elated when it was announced on her birthday that a biopic is being made on her life and eminent actress Taapsee Pannu will be portraying the role.
It is a very tough role for Taapsee to portray despite her playing a hockey star in Soorma. Recently, the first view poster of the movie named ‘Shabaash Mithu’ was unveiled and Pannu expressed the troubles she faced in getting ready for the role of a cricketer.
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Many had pointed out the lack of resemblance between Taapsee and Mithali in the poster. As per the quotes in Mid-day, Taapsee said, “I was roped in because Mithali and I have similar life approaches and ideologies. We want to make it as convincing as possible but it is not as important to look like her as it is to perform and behave like her. I just want her to say this after watching the movie. We don’t want to replicate the look to the tee.”
“I have always been asked who’s your favourite male cricketer but you should ask them who their favourite female cricketer is.” The statement that made every cricket lover pause n introspect that do they love the game or the gender playing it.@M_Raj03 you are a ‘Game Changer’ pic.twitter.com/2VlxYpXmSM
— taapsee pannu (@taapsee) January 29, 2020
The actress also revealed that she is practicing a lot to make adapt to Mithali’s signature cover drive shot perfect and is working with Mithali’s friend Nooshin Al Khadeer. She further mentioned how Khadeer has taught her all of the cricketer’s shots and techniques and made her realize it will be a tough training regimen.
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Mithali had made her international debut at the age of 16 in 1999 in an ODI against Ireland and went on to score a century on debut, becoming the youngest to do so. She also holds a variety of records as well, like playing 109 consecutive ODI matches between 2004 and 2013, the most for an Indian player. She also had 74 consecutive innings without scoring a duck in between 2000 and 2007.
