VR Vanitha retires from all forms of cricket

VR Vanitha, the batter who played six ODIs and 16 T20Is for India Women from 2014 to 2016, has retired from all forms of cricket. The 31-year-old made her announcement via Twitter, thanking the family members, friends, mentors and team-mates - including India players Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj - who had been part of her journey in the sport, as well as the two state associations - Karnataka and Bengal - that she represented in domestic cricket.

Vanitha usually opened the batting in T20 cricket and batted in the middle order in ODIs. Her career was marked by a tendency to get off to starts without quite converting them - she made five 25-plus scores in 15 T20I innings, for instance, but only managed a top score of 41 - and ended up with ODI and T20I averages of 17.00 and 14.40 as a result.

More recently, though, Vanitha was in excellent form for Bengal during the 2021-22 domestic season, helping them reach the semi-finals of the Women's Senior One-Day Trophy. Her 225 runs included knocks of 61 against Andhra and a 71-ball 107 against Hyderabad, and among batters to score at least 150 runs in the tournament, her strike rate of 109.75 was the second-best.

Vanitha has not specified what she intends to do after hanging up her boots, but mentioned in her farewell note that she would dedicate herself to "grooming young talents in Cricket."