NEWS
Jhulan Goswami is an all-round cricketing star and a former India national women’s cricket team captain. She is widely considered as the best fast bowler at the moment. From playing with boys to featuring in the World Cup final, the Chakdaha Express, as she is popularly known, has come a long way. She is a true inspiration for all the young athletes who want to be successful fast bowlers.
Jhulan Goswami is an all-round cricketing star and a former India national women’s cricket team captain. She is widely considered as the best fast bowler at the moment. From playing with boys to featuring in the World Cup final, the Chakdaha Express, as she is popularly known, has come a long way. She is a true inspiration for all the young athletes who want to be successful fast bowlers.
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Jhulan Nishit Goswami |
| Age | 37 |
| Date of Birth | 25 November 1982 |
| Hometown | Chakdaha, West Bengal, India |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Batting Style | Right-hand bat |
| Bowling Style | Right-arm medium fast |
| Teams Played for | Asia Women XI, Bengal Women, East Zone Women, India Green Women, India Women |
Unlike other girls of her age, she would voraciously watch sports on television, football in particular. Then in 1992, she watched India play in the Cricket World Cup. That was when her tryst with cricket began. Jhulan hails from a middle-class family in Chakdaha, a small town in the Nadia district of West Bengal.
She always had an inclination of playing cricket. Since young girls hardly played cricket, she started playing tennis-ball cricket with the boys. Steadily, her love for the game grew, and soon she realised the need to pursue a career in cricket.
In fact, it was the 1997 Women’s World Cup final between Australia and New Zealand, in which she volunteered as a ball girl convinced her to take up the sport. She then decided to take her cricket education a step further. As her hometown lacked elementary cricket facilities back then, she would travel to Kolkata to train better.
In that time, a girl travelling alone by train every day to play cricket was the most unusual thing you would ever hear. But not for Jhulan. Only in her teens, the youngster would travel for three days in a week to Kolkata. She would catch the 5 am train from Chakdaha to Sealdah in Kolkata.
From there on, the 15-year-old would then reach for the cricket practise by 7.30 am through the bus. After completion of her practice by 9.30, it was another two-hour sojourn back to her hometown where she would have to report to school. This exhausting four-hour trek on a packed train would seem to be burdensome.
But for an indomitable Goswami, it was essential to toughen her up mentally, as she later revealed. “It was really a tiring schedule, as I had to travel for more than five hours in a day, then come back, have a rest for a while and again go back for studies. There was less time to rest and more time to work,” she recalled.
Soon, a 19-year-old Goswami made it to the Bengal women’s team. After a promising debut season with Bengal, Goswami paved her way into the East Zone team. And this is where she took her first big leap towards international cricket.
During the game between East Zone and Air-India in 2000, Goswami impressed with her pace and ability to move the ball. She finished the match with 3/13 in 10 overs, against the Air Indian side which included top players like Anju Jain. Post-match, she received an offer to join the Air India team, and never looked back.
In no time, an Indian call-up followed. She made her India debut, in the ODI against England in Chennai. Goswami began England’s route as he picked opener Caroline Atkins’ wicket. She then caught Lucy Pearson in front of the stumps as England crashed for just 106 at Chennai.
Goswami finished with an impressive debut figure of 2/15 before India’s top order finished the job. She continued tormenting the English top order as well, finishing with the figures of 3/8 in her quota of five overs. Goswami soon established herself as a mainstay in the Indian National Women’s Cricket team.
In 2005, she was named in the squad for Women’s World Cup, South Africa. Later in December the same year, she picked 5 for 16 in Silchar in as India sunk England to 50 all out. She went on to pick five or more wickets in an innings once again in 2011 against New Zealand women at Southgate.
By the year 2006, Jhulan was consistently hitting speed up to 120 km/hr. At the same time, Australian seamer Cathryn Fitzpatrick, considered as the fastest at the time, announced her retirement. Jhulan Goswami was now titled the fastest bowler in the world.
In 2008, the Board for Control of Cricket in India named Jhulan as the Indian Women’s team captain. She led the Women in Blue for three years, until 2011. Under her leadership, India played 25 ODIs, winning 12, and losing the rest. She also became only the 4th woman to pick 100 ODI wickets in the 2008 Asia Cup.
The Chakdaha Express has continued to scalp wickets regularly as she topped the ICC ODI bowling rankings in 2016. In 2018, Goswami dismissed South Africa opener Laura Wolvaardt at Kimberley, and by doing so reached the 1st bowler to pick 200 wickets in WODIs.
Jhulan at the 2017 World Cup Final – England vs India – London, Britain – July 23, 2017.
Goswami made her debut in the Women’s World Cup in South Africa, 2004. Her debut world cup went fairly well as she picked 13 wickets in 8 games. She took two four wickets haul- against England and the West Indies.
Goswami was also a part of the 2009 and 2013 ICC Women’s World Cup. In the 2009 World Cup in Australia, she finished with slightly lesser 4 wickets in 7 matches. In 2013, she had a better campaign. India, as hosts faltered and fell out of the group stage. Goswami picked 9 wickets in 4 matches as India finished 7th.
Later in 2017, she guided the Indian team to the finals of the Women’s ODI World Cup final, before going down in the finals against hosts England. In that, she took 3 wickets for only 23 runs in 10 overs to limit the host’s total to 228/7. However, England went on to narrowly win the trophy by 9 runs.
Jhulan Goswami made her test debut soon after her ODI debut in January 2002. On her second test against South Africa at Paarl, she finished with 4 wickets. Jhulan is an equally invaluable player for the test team as well. In fact, Jhulan has an average of less than 20 in Test bowling.
Jhulan was not bad with the bat in test cricket. The Bengal player has scored two half-centuries of India in test cricket. Incidentally, both of them have come against England away. As the Indian women’s team rarely play Test matches, Goswami has managed to compete in only ten Tests over a 16-years of an illustrious career.
The zenith of her Test performance came against England at Taunton in 2006, where she took five wickets in each inning and finished with match figures of 10 for 78 to help India to a famous series victory. For the Indian team, that was a first test series win against England, in England.
That year was marked by another highlight when she won the ICC Women’s Player of the Year 2007. Goswami has 40 Test wickets in her name in 10 matches.
Jhulan Goswami made her T20I debut for India against England in Derby, finishing with the figures of 2/14. On 23 March 2012, Goswami picked 5 wickets in a T20 game against Australia at Vishakapatnam. She has gone on to represent India in 68 T20Is, picking 56 wickets. While Goswami announced her retirements from T20I in August 2018, she still represents India in the longer formats of the game.
Jhulan Goswami was born on 25 November 1982 to Jharna and Nishit Goswami in Chakdaha. Her parents, Nishit and Jharna, wanted her to focus on her studies, rather than playing a ‘male’ sports of cricket.
“Initially my mum and dad were a bit reluctant about me taking up cricket. But I had already decided that I wanted to be a cricketer.” She also has a younger brother named Kunal.
As of 2020, Jhulan Goswami is unmarried. In an interview in 2017, Goswami expressed that she was focused on her game, and she ” can’t devote time to a relationship as I won’t be able to do justice to it.”
Jhulan Goswami receiving a state award at the hands of Sourav Ganguly and West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee
Talks on a Jhulan Goswami have been since 2017. In fact, she herself said on 19 September 2017 that a biopic on her is in the scripts, the working title of which is Chakdaha Express. It was reported the movie was to be directed by Sushanta Das.
The movie will trace Goswami’s journey from the Vivekananda Park nets in Kolkata to the Lord’s cricket ground in London. In 2020, Anuskha Sharma was spotted in an old Indian jersey with Jhulan Goswami in Kolkata’s stadium and thus, giving rise to an idea of the title cast in the movie.
Despite her towering frame and a height of almost 6 feet, she is known for her athleticism and pace. In fact, she uses her unusual height to her advantage, generating bouncers. She is also known for her pace and is widely regarded as the fastest active bowler – an incredible feat, especially considering that she is an all-rounder. The Fastest ball of Jhulan Goswami is argued by many to be either 125 km/h to 130 km/h.
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