India's campaign in the 2022 ICC Women's World Cup came to an end on Sunday with a heartbreaking defeat to South Africa in their final match in the league stage. Captain Mithali Raj hit a half-century but South Africa Women managed to win by three wickets to knock India Women out of the tournament. There have been murmurs that the World Cup would be Mithali's final assignment as an India player, but the veteran batter remained tight-lipped on her plans for the future.
In the post-match press conference, the 39-year-old was asked if retirement was on the cards for her after the exit from the World Cup.
"I've not really planned much about the future. For us, as players and athletes, when you have a disappointment in a campaign which ends like this in a World Cup where you have really prepared very hard over a year, it takes time for players to accept and then move on from there to whatever the future holds for each and every player," she replied.
Asked again by a reporter if this was the last we saw of her in the Indian jersey, she said: "It would not be appropriate for me to comment anything on that, considering the kind of game we just played and as I said, the emotions are still there. So, it needs to settle down before I could have clarity on that and give an answer to that."
This was also possibly the last time another India veteran, Jhulan Goswami, played in a World Cup, but unfortunately for her and the team, she was ruled out of the match against South Africa Women with a side strain suffered in training.
Mithali Raj said that India missed her experience in a crunch match against such a tough opposition.
"I'm sure she would have made a difference, because with so many years of experience, playing different teams on different surfaces and in similar pressure situations. Having a senior player like her to lead the bowling attack, clearly it would have made a difference," she said.
"But having said that, I'm sure she might be feeling a little disappointed that the last game of the Indian team she could not be part of, but then that's how it is. She had a side strain during the training session and she couldn't recover," she added.
She then said that she wanted to qualify for the semi-finals so that Jhulan could have another game at the tournament.
"I really wanted to win this game so we could give her another game in the semi-finals but it didn't go our way," she said.
Goswami, during the course of this year's tournament, became the highest ever wicket-taker in the history of the Women's World Cup.