Meet Pratika Rawal, 24-year-old Indian star who made history by breaking world record in women's ODI cricket

At the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot on Wednesday, India and Ireland played their third and final one-day international, with Pratika Rawal putting on an incredible display. The 24-year-old cricketer achieved her first ODI century with a remarkable 154 runs off 129 balls, including 20 boundaries and one six. This accomplishment is the fourth-highest score for an ODI debut.

With her impressive 154-run innings, Rawal set a new world record for the most runs scored in a player's first six innings in women's ODIs, bringing her total to 444 runs. Her scores of 40, 76, 18, 89, 67, and 154 surpassed the previous record held by former England captain Charlotte Edwards, who had 434 runs in her first six ODIs.

Rawal earlier demonstrated her abilities in her second international match, capturing two wickets for 37 runs in just five overs and hitting 76 runs off 86 balls. Cricket fans all throughout the world have taken notice of and are in awe of her extraordinary skills on the pitch.

Following the game, Rawal talked about her passion for psychology and how it influenced her cricket career in a video released by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Rawal, who graduated with a degree in psychology from Jesus & Mary College in New Delhi, was a standout student who scored an astounding 92.5 percent on her CBSE 12th board exam.

“I wanted to study about that (human mind) and when I started studying about it, I was very keen on understanding how we mentally process (things) on the field and off the field. And, it has helped me a lot in cricket as well," Rawal was quoted as saying in the video shared by BCCI on ‘X’.

The passion for cricket 
The curiosity of studying the human mind 
...And everything in between 

WATCH - By @mihirlee_58 #TeamIndia | #INDvIRE | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/RO6yTcgwvm

— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) January 9, 2025

“When I’m on the field before a match there is a lot of positive self-talk, what all I have to do in present and in future. Like, when I’m batting then also I see myself ‘you know you are the best, you can do this’. So, that affirmation needs to be there," she added.

Who is Pratika Rawal?

At the age of ten, Pratika, who was born in Delhi on September 1, 2000, discovered her passion for cricket. She was interested in psychology at first, but her love of cricket quickly overtook it.

She established herself at the 2021 Senior Women's One-Day Trophy, scoring 247 runs in seven games at a strike rate of 78.41 and an average of 49.40. Her undefeated 161 runs off 155 balls against Assam, which included 19 fours and five sixes, was a high point of her performance.

Pratika guided Delhi to the Under-23 T20 Trophy final earlier this year, but they lost to Madhya Pradesh by a slim margin. With 182 runs in nine games, an average of 26, and a strike rate of 85.94, she was her team's second-highest scorer.

Pratika showed her consistency in the most recent Senior Women's One-Day Trophy by amassing 411 runs in eight games, with a remarkable average of 68.50 and a strike rate of 91.94, which included two hundreds and a high score of 141. In the Women's Delhi Premier League, she also played for the East Delhi Riders.

Her first call-up to the Indian women's national cricket squad was for the ODI series against the West Indies in December 2024.

Also read| IND-W vs IRE-W: Smriti Mandhana smashes record century against Ireland as India post their highest ever ODI total