'Give your best. You might not get such chances time and again'

India womens ODI captain Mithali Raj shares her thoughts after the veteran cricketer was left out from the semi-finals of the 2018 ICC Womens T20 World Cup 2018

Women have emerged to be the frontrunners for Indian success in Olympics, Commonwealth games and World Championships across sports. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have been the center of the action contributing the maximum number of women World Champions. Star Sports 1 Telugu salutes them and hopes to inspire a generation of sports lovers, women and youngsters through a special series dedicated to our sportswomen. Rashmi Gautam, who has been ruling the entertainment world for the last 10 years, is anchoring the show. This is the second part of the conversation with legendary Indian Women’s ODI captain Mithali Raj.

Mithali Raj now has her focus firmly on the Women’s ODI World Cup. Although she is the highest run scorer in T20Is and had put up brilliant performances, the veteran batswoman was excluded from the team for the crucial match against England in the semi-finals of the 2018 Women’s World T20. Speaking exclusively on Star Sports 1 Telugu show ‘Girl Power – Sarileru Manakevaru’, Mithali spoke about what she felt after she was left out from the match in Antigua, “Honestly, I was quite disappointed that I couldn’t play. But it is something that has happened with every player. I am not the first person with whom this has happened. It is about the team composition and may be captain and coach felt that they had a better player to feed in to the eleven. But I always had hopes that if we win that match, I may have the chance in final, I will be able to contribute, and we have a better chance to win the Cup. That was my intention of reaching out to the players in the huddle to pep them up, ‘give your best you, might not get such chances time and again.”

Inspired by her achievements, a biopic on Mithali Raj is currently being made that will see Tapsee Pannu essay the role of India’s super star. Speaking exclusively on Star Sports 1 Telugu show ‘Girl Power – Sarileru Manakevaru’, Mithali spoke about preparations for her biopic and gave a few insights into her chats with Taapsee, “She is very lively, talkative and she has the spunk. I said, ‘Give me some time, let me get comfortable, I will help you out. Acting is your profession. It will come by naturally. What you have to learn is the cover drive. People will relate your cover drive with my cover drive. So, that is something you have to work hard. Tapsee said I gave her stress by mentioning this, but I asked her to better bat properly.”

“Girl Power – Sarileru Manakevaru” is a show that takes us through the journey of women sports persons on Star Sports 1 Telugu, with new episodes on every Sunday at 10 am.

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