I miss that gathering of my teammates and friends: Mithali Raj

It took Mithali Raj a couple of days to set up a routine and make a timetable helps organise her day. “The last time I made a timetable was in school, to organise my life around cricket, dance and school,” she said.

Mithali Raj, India women’s Test captain, has been at home in Secunderabad since March 12. She had just returned from a holiday in New Zealand and was to play a domestic season starting March 14, when the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

Mithali Raj (Satish Bate/HT Photo)

“This is the first time in my life, everybody’s life, that we’re experiencing a lockdown like this,” says Raj.

For a person who’s spent two decades on the field, the lockdown was only going to work if she kept herself busy, with a priority on maintaining her fitness. It took her a couple of days to set up a routine and make a timetable helps organise her day. “The last time I made a timetable was in school, to organise my life around cricket, dance and school,” she said. “These days, it helps when I wake up and have something to look forward to.”

Apart from staying fit, her timetable incorporates quality time with mum and dad and spare time to clean out the closet. She’s been waking up at 5:30 am these days (“not something you get to do when playing, because your body is trying to take in every minute of sleep”) to do her morning exercises while her mother goes on her walking rounds, as the sun rises. “We’re usually cooped up in our hotels, trying to catch every bit of sleep during training season, or out on the field. There’s never been time to catch the sunrise or sunset every day like this,” she said.

After her evening round of exercises on the terrace, while the sun sets, she watches the news with her father, to keep up-to-date on what’s happening. “My conversations with my father in the past rarely went beyond discussing my finances and cricket,” she says. “But now, dinner conversations are about what’s happening in the world around us.”

The lockdown has also given her time to catch up on some heavy reading. She just finished ‘The Barefoot Coach’ by Paddy Upton, the psychologist for the men’s cricket team, and is currently reading ‘White Mughals’ by William Dalrymple. “During intense training periods, as my energy is zapped, I keep it light, something I can breeze through. But now since there’s a lot of time, I can dig into the heavier books.”

She’s also got the time to dig sort out stuff in the closet from the old days. “I have so many things, mementoes, uniforms, other paraphernalia, that’s been lying there from the early 90s,” she says. “One gem I found in that was my cap from Sports Glory Club, the first club I ever belonged to in ’93 – ’94.

Yet no amount of nostalgia is going to make up for what she she’s been missing the lockdown – time on the ground. Training has been a part of her life for so many years that an abrupt end to it has left her wanting. “I miss that gathering of my teammates and friends,” she says, longingly.

But this time in relative isolation is not without its lessons that she can take back onto the field when things return to normal. Now unlike many of us stuck at home exploring our newfound culinary skills, Mithali is on a strict diet. “I can’t indulge in extravagant food right now, because we’re all under lockdown and I can’t expend the energy,” she explains.

She’s been practicing intermittent fasting, where she eats breakfast by 9 am and finished dinner at 7 pm, a schedule she cannot keep during active season. “It took a couple of days to adjust, but then my body was quick to understand the new schedule and adjusted to it instantly,” she says. “People say intermittent fasting is difficult, but I find that you can train your body to understand your needs at any given time. It works for you.”