Mithali Raj, India's legendary woman cricketer, celebrates her birthday on Tuesday (December 3). The swashbuckling batswoman, who recently completed 20 years in her cricket career, turns 37 years old. With 9915 runs in 308 international appearances for Indian women cricket team so far, Mithali has shown her consistency with the art of batting in the game of cricket. She is also a former Indian skipper who led Indian tram in the finals of two ICC World Cups. As the Indian cricketer adds one more year to her life, let us look at few lesser-known things to know about Mithali Raj. Mithali Raj Gives Befitting Reply to a Fan Who Slammed the Star Cricketer Over Language Preference.

Mithali made her ODI debut in June, 1999 against Ireland. She has played 209 ODIs so far, smashing 6888 runs. The right-handed batswoman made her Test debut in January, 2002 in a match against England. She has played 10 Tests in her career, in which she scored 663 runs. Talking about Mithali Raj's outstanding T20I career, she is the cricketer with most T20I runs. She leads the tally with 2364 runs in her T20I career. Below are some lesser-known things to know about Mithali Raj. Happy Birthday Mithali Raj: A Look at 5 Prolific Innings by India’s Legendary Batswoman.

1. She smashed 7 consecutive half-centuries during ICC Women World Cup 2017, scripting record for most consecutive fifties by a cricketer.

2. She is nicknamed Lady Tendulkar of Indian women's cricket as she is leading run-scorer in all the three formats for India.

3. She is the 1st Indian and 5th woman cricketer overall to hit smash 1,000 World Cup runs.

4. She is a book lover. She read books in pavilions during cricket matches to keep herself away from the pressure of the game. She revealed this in a BWC (Breakfast With Champions) episode to Gaurav Kapoor.

5. She won Arjuna Award in 2003 and Padma Shri Award in 2015.

Mithali Raj plays for Railways in domestic cricket tournaments. She started playing cricket from the early age of 10 years. In September this year, Mithali Raj retired from T20I cricket to focus on Women's ODI World Cup 2021. Happy birthday Mithali Raj.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 03, 2019 09:45 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).