"Perfection is boring," she believed, while brazenly embracing her flaws ©Getty
In a world full of variables, Mithali Raj was India's constant.

Cricket was an acquired taste for this fauji kid. Perhaps that's why she could always unabashedly detach herself from it beyond the professional realm. But even three decades ago there was little doubt that the reserved, pigtailed teenager - denied a World Cup berth at 14 and a history-maker at 16 - was destined for greatness.

Raj's legacy well and truly goes beyond raw numbers. So much so that you'd be spoilt for choices trying to summarise the impact - both tangible and intangible - her footprints left on the evolution of the women's sport in India.

But it also isn't entirely fair to totally separate her from the many numbers that made Raj an icon in a sport-loving nation, and world, that failed to give women their due for the better part of her 23 playing years.

Every run she recorded after breaching Charlotte Edwards' ODI tally of 5992 was a record of its own that'll take years to emulate; every cap earned after the English captain's 191 added more layers to an already insurmountable peak. Among women cricketers with 50+ ODIs under their belt, Raj's career average of 50.68 is only bettered by Meg Lanning' 53.13 - and that speaks volumes about the quality of each of those runs she sometimes even single-handedly fought to collect, away from the spotlight.

The bare minimum any active cricketer will take to break Raj's longevity record is another 2 years and 200 days - should Jhulan Goswami so desire. There's currently no international in active pursuit of her consecutive ODI half-centuries record (7); Stafanie Taylor needs at least 27 more to match Raj's career haul of 71 fifties. No other captain has yet led India to a second ODI World Cup final - male or female.

Even in the times of gross maladministration and unexplained decision-making, she was India's longest serving and most successful white-ball captain. To the format her technically-perfect game was oft considered ill-suited to, Raj gave India its first T20 century and remains the fastest to 2000 T20I runs.

Now, here's something scorecards and statistics won't tell you fairly. Until the last few laps of her career when the media attention and adulation was rightfully bestowed on this half of the playing population and a price tag duly put on her time, it was a lot easier to get acquainted to the unassuming Mithu she is beneath this public persona of a living legend.

Forced to the confines of their hotel rooms in foreign land, she'd hatch plans to prank her teammates - Goswami her most frequent and most sporting prey. Her teammates would in turn save her the blushes when she couldn't put a name to a famous face they'd bump into on tours. It was in trying to convince Goswami that Raj, an otherwise unenthusiastic cook, offered to whip up meals when the WBBL came calling in its inaugural year. The deal that eventually fell through, due to a clash with India's domestic calendar, would have befittingly added another first to their decorated caps.

Goswami was the most frequent and most sporting prey to Mithali's pranks.
Goswami was the most frequent and most sporting prey to Mithali's pranks. ©Getty
Raj was kind to the scribes too. She had no qualms jotting down notes in your diary if you had your hands full. In the times of platitudes and cliches, Raj uttered every word from her heart. She remained gracious with her time and her well-articulated thoughts - whether it meant a long walk straight back into the sapping May afternoon heat after a well-deserved ice bath or sitting leisurely by the poolside discussing the what-ifs of the game she played. Even if the writer and the muse didn't always see eye to eye, she'd be there for the love of the game.

"Perfection is boring," she believed, while brazenly embracing her flaws. Sometimes, even of others. Raj's career began and prospered even through the best and worst of the cash-strapped WCI days when support wasn't very forthcoming. She saw the good and ugly of the BCCI regime and yearned for equality but also remained ever so grateful of whatever did come their way, even if belatedly.

Raj defied age and career-threatening injuries long enough to see professional contracts make its way to the game that she once picked up on her father's whim. But by the time leagues arrived, with the promise of opportunity and growth, her game had been branded 'outdated'. She nonetheless carried on unhinged for as long as the mind and the body allowed, and then some.

In a parallel universe, Raj played with total abandon and all the freedom that the cricketer in her longed for. Perhaps that could have also been the origin story of a world-beating beast India has had the potential to transform into for the better part of the last decade.

This cricket world though is fortunate to have witnessed her in the last few, if not the best, years of her career going about the business with unmatched professionalism, perfection and elegance. And perhaps even a smidgen of disdain for outside noise that couldn't fluster her. For more than anything, captain Raj believed in the talent her team possessed.

There was no other reason she would have added another World Cup cycle to a storied career that was admittedly already on its last legs in 2017. She, like her teammates, braved the many shades of a raging pandemic and swallowed a year of the board's indifference for dreams they dreamt together, but couldn't outrun fate.

Mithali Raj will always be India's constant
Mithali Raj will always be India's constant ©Getty
Raj leaves without that elusive silverware but also with the unshakable belief that it isn't too far away. And that when it does happen, somebody from the many generations she'll continue to inspire will tip their floppy hat to her for showing them the path.

If she so desires, Raj would be calling that historic moment. If India is lucky, she would have instead facilitated it.

Amongst the most vocal on gender equality and neutrality in the sport, Raj's potential in an administerial capacity to bring about the change the powers-that-be have only thus far unpassionately mooted going untapped would be a gross disservice to her legacy. Even in post-retirement life, she could etch more firsts in the game she lives and breathes.

Because, Mithali Raj will always be India's constant.