March 8 is observed as International Women’s Day world over. On this day, let’s take a look at an illustrious list of Indian sportswomen who have changed the face of sports in the country.
CRICKET:
Mithali Raj
Mithali Raj
The recently retired former Indian captain has, over a two-decade-long career, become the face of the women’s game. She ended a fabled career with a number of milestones to her name, including being the top run-getter in women’s internationals, the leading ODI run-scorer in women’s cricket and the most successful captain in the women’s game (89 wins out of 155 as captain) to name a few. After retirement, Mithali has assumed a mentorship role with the Gujarat Giants franchise in the Women’s Premier League.
Jhulan Goswami
Jhulan Goswami
One of the brightest minds to have represented India on the international stage, Jhulan Goswami rewrote the way India saw pace bowling in the women’s game. Her contribution to Indian pace bowling was so crucial that even in the last few series she played, she was India’s go-to pacer. Jhulan finished with 353 wickets across formats.
The 39-year-old has 12 Tests, 203 ODIs and 68 T20Is for India, and has picked up 353 wickets across formats. Of those, 253 wickets have come in ODIs where she is the highest wicket-taker in women’s cricket. In fact, no other player bar Goswami has managed to breach the 200-wicket landmark in ODI cricket so far.
Shantha Rangaswamy
Shantha Rangaswamy
Shantha Rangaswamy is the first woman to lead the Indian women’s cricket team. In a career spanning 15 years, she featured in 16 Tests and 19 ODIs for India. She scored India’s first Test century and hit the first six in the Indian women’s game too. After her playing career, she dabbled in commentary with the All India Radio. She also became the first female representative on the BCCI Apex Council.
Shubhangi Kulkarni
Shubanghi Kulkarni
Shubhangi Kulkarni is a former Indian cricketer who featured in 19 Tests and 27 ODIs. Kulkarni captained India in three Test match as well as one ODI match against England. After her time as an active player, she became an administrator. She was the secretary of the Women’s Cricket Association of India when the WCAI merged with the BCCI in 2006. In 2022, she was elected to represent the Indian Cricketers’ Association (ICA) on the BCCI apex council.
Diana Edulji
Diana Edulji
In an 18-year-long career, Diana Edulji represented India in 20 Test matches and 34 ODIs, taking 63 and 46 wickets in the formats respectively. She is still the third highest wicket taker in women’s Tests and has the distinction of bowling the most balls by a woman cricketer in Tests -5098+.
Most recently, recognition for Diana Edulji’s legacy and contribution to the game was renewed when she was selected by the Supreme Court of India to be part of a Committee of Administrators who handled the working of the BCCI for 33 months before Sourav Ganguly was appointed BCCI president.
Shafali Verma (2nd from left) celebrates with teammates after clinching the Womens U-19 T20 World Cup.
Shafali Verma
Shafali Verma broke into the women’s cricket ecosystem with an impressive franchise debut with Velocity in the Women’s T20 Challenge in 2019. As a result, she earned her maiden India call-up at the age of 15 and became the youngest player to feature in a women’s T20I. In June 2021, she became the youngest player, male or female, to represent India in all three formats of international cricket when she made her Test and ODI debuts. On 8 October 2022, she became the youngest cricketer to complete 1000 runs in T20 Internationals. In 2020, she was instrumental in India making the final of the T20 World Cup. Her first silverware came in her first international stint as captain when she led India to victory in the U19 T20 World Cup.
BOXING
Mary Kom
They don’t call her Magnificent Mary for no reason. M.C Mary Kom is the only woman to win the World Amateur Boxing Championship six times, the only female boxer to have won a medal in each one of the first seven World Championships, and the only boxer (male or female) to win eight World Championship medals. She won a bronze medal in the flyweight category at the 2012 London Olympics. She became the first Indian female boxer to win a gold medal in the Asian Games in 2014 at Incheon, South Korea and is the first Indian female boxer to win gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Mary has three sons and a daughter and a big portion of her success came after 2007 - after she gave birth for the first time.
Nikhat Zareen
Nikhat Zareen
Nikhat Zareen has been snapping at Mary Kom’s heels for a while now. She broke into the scene with a gold medal in the flyweight division of the AIBA Women’s Junior and Youth World Boxing Championship in Turkey in 2011. Nikhat followed that with a silver medal in the Youth World Boxing Championship held in Bulgaria in 2014. She continued to accumulate wins in Thailand and Strandja before a bronze in the Asian Championship in 2019. 2022 was a breakout year in her career. It started with a gold medal at the Strandja Memorial. Soon after, she was crowned world champion in the 52kg category. Nikhat made it a hattrick of golds when she took home top honours at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games as well. Having stepped out Mary Kom’s shadow, she now eyes a medal at the Paris Olympics.
Sarita Devi
Sarita Devi
Laishram Sarita Devi had a decorated career in boxing. She is a former world champion (light bantamweight, 2006), one of only three women to win gold at the World Championships. She finished on the podium at the Worlds twice other than that - bronze medal finishes in 2005 and 2008. She is a five-time Asian Champion, dominating the bantamweight and light bantamweight categories from 2003 to 2012. Her controversial refusal to accept the bronze medal awarded to her at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games is often the first thing that comes to mind when her career is looked back at. Despite a dominant showing against Korea’s Park Ji-Na, the judges gave Park the a 3-0 win.
FOOTBALL:
Oinam Bembem Devi
Oinam Bembem Devi
Called the ‘Durga of Indian Football’ became the first Indian woman footballer, and the seventh overall to receive the prestigious Padma Shri Award. The retired footballer from Imphal was part of the Indian team which won gold medals in 2010 and 2016 at the South Asian Games. She was also part of India’s gold medal wins at the SAFF Women’s Championship in 2010, 2012 and 2014. She has also been part of league and tournament triumphs with East Sporting Union in 2016-17, Manipur in the Senior Women’s National Football Championship before that in 2013-14. Bembem Devi also had an overseas stint with Maldivian club New Radiant. She finished the season as the top scorer of the tournament. She has played an important role in inspiring girls in the northeast to take up football.
Bala Devi
Ngangom Bala Devi
Manipur-born Bala Devi was a sprightly talent in age group football. She represented her state, earning tournament honours across a number of events. She eventually made her way to the Manipur senior team in the National Championships. In 2014, she helped her side beat Odisha 3-1 in the final, scoring a brace to win Manipur the trophy. She followed the path Bembem Devi took by signing with Maldivian club New Regent WSC. Back home, she enjoyed a number of Indian Women’s League stints with Manipur Police SC, East Sporting Union and KRYPHSA. Most notably, Bala Devi was signed by Rangers Women for a stint in the Scottish league, making her one of the few Indian women playing abroad professionally. In December 2020, she became the first Indian woman to score in a professional football league in Europe by scoring in their 9-0 thrashing of Motherwell. An ankle injury ended her season with the side prematurely. Bala Devi then underwent a training cum trial stint with Malaga. Most recently, she has signed with Odisha FC in the Indian Women’s League.
Bala’s international career has seen a number of highs and lows, but she has been a part of a number of memorable campaigns for India. Bala was part of the Indian team which participated in the first-ever Women’s SAFF Championship in 2010. She had a stellar campaign in the tournament’s 2014 edition which India won, completing a three peat. In the 2016 edition, she led the Indian team in the tournament and won it for the first time as captain.
TENNIS
Sania Mirza
Sania Mirza
Sania Mirza has been the face of Indian women’s tennis for most part of the last two decades. She has won 43 WTA doubles titles and one singles trophy. She has six Grand Slam titles to her name and set a number of remarkable records along the way. She is the first Indian woman to win a WTA title and a Grand Slam, she is the first woman to break into the WTA Top 50 rankings and the first to enjoy a successful stint as World number one. Having announced her retirement recently, Sania has taken up a new role as mentor to the Royal Challengers Bangalore women’s cricket team. She has not only achieved what no Indian woman had before in her field but she also took a number of society’s biases and takedowns of female athletes and shut down her trolls with her innovative t-shirts, candid interviews and ‘don’t care’ attitude, letting no one and nothing come between her and her life choices.
BADMINTON:
Aparna Popat
Aparna Popat
Aparna Popat is a nine-time badminton national champion dominating the Indian scene between 1997 and 2006. She is a two-time Olympian, featured in one Asian Games edition and had four medals across three Commonwealth Games appearances. At her peak, she was ranked 16th in the world. She was conferred with the Arjuna Award for her achievements in the sport.
SAINA NEHWAL
Saina Nehwal is Indian women’s badminton’s first international superstar. She achieved several milestones for the country, being the only Indian to have won at least one medal in every BWF major singles event - Olympics, the World Championships and the Junior World Championships, being the first Indian woman to win honours at all of the above. She won a bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics. In 2014, she captained the Indian team at the Uber Cup and helped the side to a first-ever bronze medal at the event. Her performances marked an era of success for female badminton players, in singles (with Sindhu following soon after) and doubles.
WRESTLING
Sakshi Malik
SAKSHI MALIK
Hailing from the wrestling-fertile land of Haryana, Sakshi Malik did no harm to her state’s repute when she secured a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to bring home an Olympic medal.
Malik, who started he wrestling career at the age of 12, would go on to win a gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, improving from the silver she won at the 2014 edition and the bronze from 2018.
FENCING:
Bhavani Devi
Bhavani Devi
CA Bhavani Devi made history by becoming the first Indian fencer, man or woman, to qualify for the Olympics. Bhavani qualified through the Adjusted Official Ranking (AOR) method. There were two places up for grabs from the Asia-Oceania region based on world rankings and courtesy of being ranked 45th in the world, she became eligible for one of the two spots.
The Chennai-based athlete had a dream debut at the Olympics. She was pitched against Tunisia’s Nadia Ben Azizi and effected a sublime 15-3 win . She bowed out in the second round.
SHOOTING
Heena Sidhu
HEENA SIDHU
The first Indian woman pistol shooter to become world number one, Heena Sidhu is also the first Indian pistol shooter to win a gold medal in the ISSF World Cup.
Having began her shooting career in 2006, the Punjab-born shooter has won medals in Asian Games and Commonwealth games, including golds at Delhi and Gold Coast CWGs.
In 2014, Sidhu was conferred the Arjuna Award in recognition of her pathbreaking role in women’s shooting in India.
Anjali Bhagwat
ANJALI BHAGWAT
Having caught the shooting bug due to her involvement with the National Cadets Corp (NCC) Anjali Bhagwat would go on to become one of India’s most illustrious shooter. In the 2000 at Sydney, she became the first Indian woman shooter to enter an Olympic final.
A serial-record-breaker, Bhagwat accumulated a total of 61 medals in international competitions, including four gold medals in Commonwealth Games and nine in Commonwealth Championships. Bhagwat’s crowning moment came in 2002, when clinched the ISSF Champion of Champions, and continues to remain the only Indian to have done so.
MOUNTAINEERING
Bachendri Pal
Bachendri Pal
Indian mountaineer Bachendri Pal is the first Indian woman to climb the summit of world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, which she accomplished in 1984, a day before she turned 30. She was awarded the third highest civilian award Padma Bhushan by Government of India in 2019. She also became an instructor at the National Adventure Foudnation and set up an adventure school to teach mountaineering.
Anshu Jamsenpa
Anshu Jamsenpa
Indian mountaineer Anshu Jamsenpa is the first woman in the world to scale the summit of Mount Everest twice in a season and the fastest double summitter to do so within five days. The mother of two also holds the record for most summits to the tallest peak by an Indian woman - five. She joined the illustrious list of woman mountaineers like Bachendri Pal, Santosh Yadav, Premlata Aggarwal and Arunima Sinha to have been conferred the Padma awards
PARA SPORTS
Deepa Malik
Deepa Malik
Deepa Malik is the first Indian woman to win a medal at the Paralympics - doing so when she won the silver medal in shot put in 2016 Paralympic Games. She is the only Indian woman to win medals in three consecutive Asian Para Games - 2010, 2014 and 2018 - her medals coming in javelin throw and discus. She also has a silver medal in shot put at the IPC World Championships in Christchurch in 2011. Malik also nurses a passion for racing. She is the first physically challenged person in India to be officially licensed in rally racing by the Federation Motor Sports Club of India (FMSCI). She became a navigator and driver in the toughest car rallies of the country- Raid-de-HIMALAYA 2009 and Desert Storm 2010.
In 2020, she was elected as president of the Paralympic Committee of India.
Ekta Bhyan at the Aces Awards
Ekta Bhyan
The Paralympian represents India in women’s club and discus throw events. She won gold in the club throw event at the 2018 Asian Para Games, producing her best throw of 16.02m in her fourth attempt and winning the F32/51 event. Bhyan became the second Indian woman to win gold medal at the Asian Para Games and the very first from her home-state, Haryana.
She has also competed and won medals in several IPC Grand Prix held at Berlin in 2016, Dubai in 2017 and Tunisia in 2018.
Avani Lekhara
Avani Lekhara
Avani Lekhara made history in Tokyo when she became the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic gold medal. She also won India’s first gold at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, with a score of 249.6 points in the 10m air rifle standing final event - a Paralympic record and tied the world record. She also became the first Indian Paralympian to win two medals at the Games when she won bronze in the 50m air rifle standing event. A paraplegic athlete who was inspired by Abhinav Bindra to take up shooting, Avani went on to become world number one in the 10m air rifle standing category. She has also three world cups medals to her name - two golds and, more recently, a silver.
Bhavina Patel
Bhavina Patel’s success at the Paralympics and Commonwealth Games helped give para table tennis in India a new lease of life. The paddler has a number of accolades to her name - the highlight being the silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Before that, Bhavina has been the world number 2 in the C4 class and has medals at the Asian Para Table Tennis Championship - a silver and a bronze in the 2013 and 2017 editions respectively. b
In 2022, Bhavina added a Commonwealth Games gold medal to her medal cabinet.
Indian para-badminton athlete Manasi Joshi, who is currently world No 2 in SL3 singles, holds a Barbie doll modelled to her likeness
Manasi Joshi
After a motorbike accident forced her to amputate her leg, Manasi took up practising yoga, meditation and badminton to regain her fitness. She took up badminton as part of her rehabilitation and evolved into a player capable of representing India at the international level. In 2015, Manasi won a silver medal in mixed doubles at the BWF Para Badminton World Championship held in Stoke Mandeville, England. Soon, she came under the tutelage of Pullela Gopichand at his Hyderabad academy. Manasi added a bronze medal at the Asian Para Games in Jakarta in 2018. She topped that with a gold medal at the Para-Badminton World Championship in Basel, Switzerland in 2019. In the 2022 edition of the same tournament, Manasi returned with two bronze medals.
Manisha Ramadass
Manisha Ramadass
Manisha Ramadass is a Side Upper 5 (SU5) category para shuttler. The 17-year-old has enjoyed a great run in 2022, winning four gold, including the Para-Badminton World Championships women’s singles title. She also won two silver and bronze medals. Due to her standout performance, Manisha was conferred the Female Para-Badminton Player of the Year award by BWF in December. Starting the year with two back-to-back international titles in Spain and Brazil, she clinched the Dubai Para-Badminton International title in May. She was a runner-up at the Bahrain and Canada International tournaments.
LEAMINGTON SPA, ENGLAND - AUGUST 02: Pinki, Lovely Choubey, Nayanmoni Saikia and Rupa Rani Tirkey and Coach of Team India celebrate their victory in Women's Fours - Gold Medal Match on day five of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games at Victoria Park on August 02, 2022 on the Leamington Spa, England. (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images) | Photo Credit: Nathan Stirk
Indian women’s fours lawn bowls team
Four women helped an entire nation wake up and discover a new sport called Lawn Bowls during the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Lovely Choubey (a policewoman), Rupa Rani Tirkey (former kabaddi player), Pinki (a former cricket player) and Nayanmoni Saikia (a forest department official) combined to win the women’s fours gold medal to give the niche sports a chance to announce itself in India’s sporting atlas.
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