Jhulan Nishit Goswami is an Indian international cricketer and the former captain of India national women's cricket team. An all-rounder who bats right-handed and bowls right-arm medium fast, Goswami is regarded as one of the greatest women fast bowler of all time and one of the fastest bowlers in the history of women's cricket, and the fastest contemporary bowler following the retirement of Cathryn Fitzpatrick. In August 2018, Goswami announced her retirement from WT20Is. She won the ICC Women's Player of the Year award in 2007 and the M.A. Chidambaram trophy for Best Women's Cricketer in 2011. Goswami was ranked first in the ICC Women's ODI bowling rankings in January 2016. Goswami is the highest wicket taker in Women's One Day International cricket. In February 2018, against South Africa, she became the first bowler to take 200 wickets in WODIs. She achieved this by taking the wicket of South Africa opener Laura Wolvaardt during the second one-day game of the three-match series at Kimberley. In April 2018, an Indian postage stamp was issued in her honour.
Soon after finishing her training in Kolkata, Goswami was called up to the Bengal cricket team. At the age of 19, she made her international debut in 2002 in a one-day International Match against England in Chennai. Her Test debut came on 14 January 2002 against England in Lucknow. Goswami along with Mithali Raj guided Indian Women’s Cricket team to first Test series win England in 2006–07 season. During the same season, Goswami helped Indian Women Cricket team to get their first victory against England, making a fifty as nightwatchman in the first Test at Leicester and taking her career best match figures of 10 for 78–5 for 33 and 5 for 45 – in the second test at Taunton. In 2007 Jhulan was a member of Asian squad in the Afro-Asia tournament in India and also won the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year. Later in 2008, she took over the captaincy from Mithali Raj and held till 2011. In 2008, she also became the fourth woman to reach 100 wickets in ODIs at Asia Cup. She led India in 25 ODIs. In 2010 she was awarded the Arjun Award and in 2012 she became second Indian women cricketer to receive Padma Shri after Diana Edulji. She has 40 Test wickets in her name in 10 matches. Overall she has 271 international wickets in 223 games and has scored 1593 runs with three 50s. She is the highest wicket taker in WODIs going past Australian Cathryn Fitzpatrick record of 180 wickets. She achieved the feat during the Women’s Quadrangular Series in South Africa. On 7 February 2018 Jhulan became the first woman cricketer to reach 200 wickets in one day cricket. She has 200 wickets in 166 matches at an average of 21.76 with two 5 wickets and 4 four wickets hauls. In ODIs she has 995 runs in 166 matches. In 2011 where India failed to win, she took 6 for 31 against New Zealand. She also has 50 wickets in 60 20–20 Internationals. In May 2017, Goswami became the leading wicket-taker in ODIs when she took her 181st wicket against South Africa at PUK Oval, Potchefstroom, surpassing Australia's Cathryn Fitzpatrick. Goswami was part of the Indian team to reach the final of the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup where the team lost to England by nine runs. Jhulan Goswami said on 19 September 2017 that a biopic on her is in the making with the working titleChakdaha Express. The biopic will be directed by Sushanta Das, it will trace Goswami's journey from the Vivekananda Park nets in Kolkata to the Lord's cricket ground in London, where India lost the World Cup final against England in July. In September 2018, against Sri Lanka, she took her 300th wicket in international cricket.
