Veteran Indian batter Punam Raut announced her retirement from international cricket on Thursday, bringing the curtain down on a 17-year-long career.
The 37-year-old Punam Raut represented the Indian women’s cricket team in four Tests, 73 ODIs and 35 T20Is.
“The player in me may step aside, but the love for this game will never retire,” Raut said in her retirement statement on social media.
Punam Raut’s biggest contributions came in ODI cricket – a format which saw her score 2299 runs at an average of 34.83 and a strike rate of 58.26. She registered three centuries and 15 fifties in 50-over cricket.
In T20 Internationals, Punam Raut accumulated 719 runs at an average of 27.65, including four fifties.
She also scored 264 runs in Tests at an average of 44.00. Her only century in the format came against South Africa in Mysore in 2014.
The Mumbai-born batter made her international debut for the Indian women’s cricket team against the West Indies at the 2009 Women’s ODI World Cup in Australia.
Raut also featured at four successive Women’s T20 World Cups – in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2014 – with India reaching the semi-finals at the first two editions.
Having made her international debut in the same year as Harmanpreet Kaur, Raut spent much of her career playing alongside established Indian stalwarts such as Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami.
Raut was an important member of the Indian team that finished runners-up at the 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup, scoring 381 runs during the tournament, including a century against Australia.
In the final against hosts England at Lord’s, Raut top-scored for India with 86 in the chase, but the Women in Blue fell nine runs short.
Leading up to the World Cup, Punam Raut and Deepti Sharma also put on 320 runs for the opening wicket against Ireland – still the highest partnership for any wicket in women’s ODIs.
Punam Raut’s final international appearance came in India’s historic pink-ball Test against Australia at Carrara in September-October 2021. Raut scored 36 in the first innings and remained unbeaten on 41 in the second as the match ended in a draw.
Her last appearance in ODIs came earlier that year against England while her last T20I appearance was against Pakistan back in 2014.
Raut never featured in the Women’s Premier League (WPL). She went unsold at the inaugural WPL auction in 2023 and again ahead of the 2024 season, having previously represented Trailblazers in the Women’s T20 Challenge.
READ MORE: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/punam-raut-retirement-india-women-cricket-2026
