GREAT individual performances have punctuated the illustrious history of the Women’s World Cup, with quality often rising to the top on the game’s biggest stage.
In the ICC’s Upstox Greatest Players series, we look at some of the best performers in the history of the tournament.
Jhulan Goswami is considered to be one of the greatest players to still play the game. She has been credited with almost single-handedly initiating the culture of fast bowling in Indian women’s cricket, and inspiring a generation of players.
Having made her debut in January 2002, Goswami has shown no signs of slowing down – she’s still going strong 20 years on – and no player has more women’s ODI wickets than Goswami.
Heading into what will be her fifth ICC Women’s World Cup, Goswami will have a chance to topple yet another record.
Goswami took to the world stage like fish to water in her maiden World Cup in 2005, finishing the tournament with 13 wickets in eight matches as India reached the final. She finished the tournament as the third-highest wicket-taker, behind her teammate Neetu David and Amita Sharma.
She was one of the few bright spots for India in the 2013 World Cup at home, when they crashed out of the tournament in the group stages. The right-arm pacer finished with nine wickets in four games and was India’s leading wicket-taker in the tournament.
Goswami led the Indian attack in the 2017 World Cup all the way to the final, where they fell short against England in a thriller. She scalped 10 wickets in nine matches and was India’s best bowler in the final, returning figures of 3-23 to restrict England to 228-7.
With 36 wickets in the Women’s World Cup, Goswami stands joint-third-highest for most wickets in the tournament’s history, tied with former England star Clare Taylor. She is just three wickets away from equalling and four away from breaking the record for the most World Cup wickets, currently held by the late Lyn Fullston with 39 scalps.
Jhulan Goswami set the stage on fire in her very first Women’s World Cup, playing a pivotal role in India’s journey to the finals.
In India’s penultimate group stage game, she returned figures of 4-16 to restrict West Indies to 135 all out in Pretoria. She broke the opening stand early, dismissing Nelly Williams in the seventh over of the innings.
She picked up three more wickets in the death overs, breaking the budding partnership between Verena Felicien and skipper Stephanie Power. She snared both Power and Debbie-Ann Lewis in the same over, before scalping Felicien in her next.
India chased down the total with 17 overs and eight wickets to spare and Goswami was rightfully awarded the Player-of-the-Match.
In an international career that has spanned more than two decades, Goswami has been the backbone of the Indian bowling attack, with a total of 345 wickets in 275 matches across formats.
In ODIs, she leads the chart for most wickets with 245 wickets, a whopping 71 more than the next active international Anisa Mohammed.
She is also India’s third-highest wicket-taker in Tests with 44 wickets, only behind Diana Edulji and Shubhangi Kulkarni. She holds the world record for the youngest player to claim a 10-wicket haul in Tests. She achieved this feat against England at Taunton in 2006, at the age of 23 years 277 days.
She retired from the T20 format in 2018 with 56 wickets to her name and is still the third-highest wicket-taker for India. She still holds the Indian record for the best-bowling figures in a T20I, with 5-11 against Australia in 2012. (ICC Media)
