'Shabaash Mithu': Taapsee Pannu starts shooting for film based on Mithali Raj's life

Bollywood actress Taapsee Pannu has commenced shooting for her upcoming biographical film ‘Shabaash Mithu’, which is based on the life of Indian women’s cricket team captain Mithali Raj. Pannu took to Instagram to share a picture of her from the set of the movie, in which she can be seen sporting full cricket gear, including pads, gloves, and a helmet. The 33-year-old shared the picture with a caption that read, “Let’s go....Day 1 ! #ShabaashMithu #WomenInBlue”. 

Taapsee Pannu has been preparing for the biopic for quite some time now as she regularly keeps posting pictures and videos from her training sessions. Earlier, Pannu shared a picture of her batting in the nets. The film, which is directed by Rahul Dholakia, is expected to release later this year.  

Mithali Raj reaches new milestone

Mithali Raj recently joined an exclusive club after she became only the second woman cricketer ever to reach the 10,000-run milestone. England’s Charlotte Edwards, who retired in 2016, was the first woman cricketer to score 10,000 runs in international cricket. Raj achieved the feat in India’s third ODI match against South Africa in Lucknow, where she scored 36 off 50 balls. The skipper reached the 7,000-run milestone in ODI cricket in the next game against South Africa, where she scored 45 runs off 71 balls. Raj became the only female cricketer to reach 7,000 runs in ODI cricket. 

Raj, who made her India debut in 1999, has played 10 Test matches, 214 ODI games, and 89 T20Is. The right-handed batter has an average of 51 each in Test and ODI cricket. Raj has seven centuries and 55 half-centuries to her name in ODI cricket. She has also led the women's national team to the final of two ICC World Cups, first in 2005 and next in 2017. She is the first player to captain most matches for India in both the ODI and T20I cricket. Raj retired from the shortest format of the game in 2019 to focus more on ODIs, hoping to win a World Cup for India in 2022.  

(Image Credit: PTI/Instagram/Taapsee)