Jhulan Goswami Biography: Birth, Age, Height, Family, Early Life, Career, Coaching Career, Awards, Honours and Titles

Jhulan Goswami Biography: She is an Indian international cricketer and the former captain of the Indian national women's cricket team. She is regarded as one of the greatest women fast bowlers of all time and in the history of women's cricket one of the fastest bowlers. She is the fastest contemporary bowler following the retirement of Cathryn Fitzpatrick.

Recently, the first look teaser of Chakda Xpress was shared by Anushka Sharma. It is a biopic of the former captain of India national women's cricket team Jhulan Goswami. Let us have a look at Jhulan Goswami's birth, age, family, career, coaching career, and so forth.

Jhulan Goswami Biography

Jhulan Goswami Biography: Birth, Age, Family, and Early Life

She was born on 25 November 1982 to a middle-class family in Chakdaha in the Nadia district of West Bengal. At the age of 15, she took up cricket. She started taking an interest in cricket when she watched the 1992 Cricket World Cup on TV. In sport, she took further interest after watching Australian batter Belinda Clark in the 1997 Women's Cricket World Cup. But at that time, her town Chakdaha did not have any cricket facilities and so she travelled to Kolkata to play cricket.

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Jhulan Goswami Biography: Career

After finishing her training in Kolkata, she was called up to the Bengal women's cricket team. In 2002, she made her international debut at the age of 19 in a one-day international match against England in Chennai. On 14 January 2002, her Test debut came against England in Lucknow.

In 2006, she was earmarked for a leadership role when she was named as vice-captain of the national team ahead of the tour of England. She helped India to win the Test series, including their first victory against England. She made fifty as a nightwatchman in the first Test at Leicester and took her career-best match figures of 10 for 78 - 5 for 33 and 5 for 45 - in the second Test at Taunton. This success made her the Player of the Series and also brought recognition at the Castrol Awards in Mumbai in September. Here, she received a Special Award. 

Further, in 2007, she won the ICC Women's Player of Year. This was the year when no Indian male player bagged any individual award. Soon after, she became the captain of the national team. 

She took over the captaincy from Mithali Raj later in 2008 and held it till 2011. She also became the fourth woman to reach 100 wickets in ODIs at Asia Cup in 2008. She was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2010 and she became the second Indian women cricketer to receive Padma Shri after Diana Edulji in 2012.

In 10 matches, she has 40 test wickets to her name and she has 271 international wickets in 223 games and has scored 1593 runs with three 50s. 

During the Women's Quadrangular Series, she achieved the feat. She also became the first woman cricketer to reach 200 wickets in one day of cricket in February 2018. She has 995 runs in 166 matches in ODIs. She took 6 for 31 against New Zealand in 2011, but India failed to win. 

She became the leading wicket-taker in ODIs in May 2017 when she took her 181st wicket against South Africa at PUK Oval, Potchefstroom, surpassing Australia's Cathryn Fitzpatrick. She was also part of the Indian team to reach the final of the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup where the team lost to England by 9 runs.

She took her 300th wicket in international cricket against Sri Lanka in September 2018. She was nominated in November 2020 for the ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Decade award. 

Goswami was named in India's Test squad for their one-off match against the England women's cricket team in May 2021. She was named to India's team for the 2022 Women's Cricket World Cup in New Zealand in January 2022. She announced her retirement from WT20Is in August 2018. 

Journey of Jhulan 🇮🇳

340 International Wickets across all formats in 20 Years. #ChakdaXpress @JhulanG10 pic.twitter.com/bZKNZ8FtHr

— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) January 6, 2022

Jhulan Goswami Biography: Coaching Career

After her retirement, she was appointed as a bowling consultant for the India women's national cricket team under the head coach Ramesh Powar. She is serving as the player coach in the India Team.

Jhulan Goswami Biography: Awards, Honours and Titles

2012: Padma Shri Award

2010: Arjuna Award

2008 - 2011: Captain of Indian Women's Cricket Team

2007: ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year

Fastest Bowler

Leading International Wicket Taker

Jhulan Goswami Biography: Biopic in Bollywood

Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma will soon be seen in Jhulan Goswami's biopic. The name of the film is Chakda Xpress. Talking about the film, Anushka wrote in her post: “Chakda Xpress is inspired by the life and times of former Indian captain Jhulan Goswami and it will be an eye-opener into the world of women’s cricket. At a time when Jhulan decided to become a cricketer and make her country proud on the global stage, it was very tough for women to even think of playing the sport. This film is a dramatic retelling of several instances that shaped her life and also women’s cricket.” 

Anushka added, "From support systems to facilities, to having a stable income from playing the game, to even having a future in cricket – very little propelled women of India to take up cricket as a profession. Jhulan had a fighting and extremely uncertain cricketing career and she stayed motivated to make her country proud. She strived to change the stereotype that women can’t make a career out of playing cricket in India so that the next generation of girls had a better playing field. Her life is a living testimony that passion and perseverance triumphs over any or all adversities and Chakda Xpress is the most definitive look into the not so rosy world of women’s cricket back then. There is still a lot of work to be done and we have to empower them with the best so that the sport can flourish for women in India."

At the end, she wrapped her statement with these words, "We should all salute Jhulan and her team-mates for revolutionizing women’s cricket in India. It is their hard work, their passion and their undefeated mission to bring attention to women’s cricket that has turned things around for generations to come. As a woman, I was proud to hear Jhulan’s story and it is an honour for me to try and bring her life to audiences and cricket lovers. As a cricketing nation, we have to give our women cricketers their due. Jhulan’s story is truly an underdog story in the history of cricket in India and the film is our celebration of her spirit."

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