Reports: India legend Mithali Raj to join Ahmedabad franchise as mentor ahead of Women's Premier League

Former India captain Mithali Raj reportedly is all set to join the Ahmedabad franchise as a mentor for the upcoming inaugural Women's Premier League (WPL).

Mithali Raj is regarded as a legend of women's cricket, and is righteously recognised as the face of not only India, but also for women's cricket in general. Her illustrious career spanned a whopping 23 years and she finally bid adieu to international cricket on June 8, 2022. She owns some of the most prolific records to her name, thus being awarded the Khel Ratna by the Government of India in 2021.

Mithali Raj to mentor Ahmedabad franchise in WPL

“Mithali Raj was keen to play but there was lack of interest from the teams. She will now be turning up for the Gujarat team as the mentor,” a source close to News18 Cricketnext told them.

The source as reported by News18 Cricketnext said that the 40-year-old had shown keen interest to play in the inaugural edition of the WPL, and she would definitely be a huge pick for any of the franchises, but due to some undue turn of events, things didn't really work out for Raj so that she could fulfill her desire of playing the WPL. But thankfully, the Gujarat Giants mentorship role just happened to pass by and the right-handed batter has reportedly decided to grab hold of that to get involved in the WPL.

“Yes there was interest from her side to play, particularly for the team based out of Mumbai but things didn’t quite materialise the way she would have wanted and a lucrative role with the Gujarat team came her way,” the News18 Cricketnext's source added.

Meanwhile, the Adani Group bought the Ahmedabad franchise with a bid of Rs 1,289 crores, which ultimately turned out to be the highest bid at the auction held by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on January 25, 2023.

For a better experience: Download the CricTracker app from the IOS App Store and Google Play Store