Longest career in ODI Cricket History: Mithali Raj in Elite list

Mithali Raj, the current Test and ODI captain of Indian Women's Cricket team entered into an elite list. She now has the second longest career in ODI cricket history. The data is in terms of days played at the international level.

With the ongoing India Women's and South Africa Women's series going on, Raj set up the records. However, the "Lady Tendulkar" of Indian Cricket has many records in her kitty. Though, she would feel very proud to feature in this list of players with the longest career in ODI cricket history.

Longest career in ODI Cricket History

#1 Sachin Tendulkar - 22 years 91 days

Sachin Tendulkar has played international cricket more than anyone in the history of the game. Perhaps, his 200 test matches and 22 years of International cricket can not be matched. It was his longevity and consistency at the highest level, made him the "GOD of Cricket".

Sachin had debuted against the Pakistan Cricket team on 18 December 1989. After that, he scored the most number of ODI runs, the most number of test runs, and the most number of international centuries as well. He was the first-ever batsman to hit an ODI double ton. He is also the only player with 30,000 international runs.

Sachin retired from ODI cricket in December 2012. His last ODI match was against the Pakistan Cricket team on 18 March 2012. He is the player with the longest career in ODI cricket history.

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#2 Mithali Raj- 21 years 254 days*

Mithali Raj is the only player (male or female ) who can get close to the record of Sachin Tendulkar. Though, it would be impossible for her to play as many matches that Sachin did. However, surely she can pass the record of the longest career in terms of days.

Mithali debuted at the age of 16, against Ireland on 26 June 1999. Since then, Mithali has scored more runs than any other Indian Women Cricketer. She is the highest run-scorer in women's international cricket. long with that, she was also the first-ever female cricketer with 6000 ODI runs. Another record in her kitty is that she was also the first (male or female) Indian Cricketer with 2000 T2OI runs. She is also the only Indian captain to lead the team in a Cricket World Cup Final (2005, 2017).

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Raj's career of 21 years and 254 days is still going strong. She is also thinking of a strong finish to her career with the next Women's World cup round the corner.

#3 Sanath Jayasurya - 21 years 184 days

The legendary all-rounder from Sri Lanka had the longest career in ODI cricket at the time of his retirement. Sanath had an international career spanning over four decades.

Sanath debuted against Australia on 26 December 1989. Post that he changed the way openers used to play. Perhaps, he was the first batsman to inject the power-hitting cricket up the order in ODI cricket. He is the only cricketer to have score 10000 ODI runs and take 300 ODI wickets at the same time.

Sanath retired from the One-day international cricket on 28 June 2011. His illustrated career is one of the most underrated careers in the history of the game.