Mithali Raj breaks all-time World Cup captaincy record

Mithali Raj has set a new all-time record in the ICC Women's World Cup as India face off against the West Indies in their match on Saturday.

The 39-year-old has broken the record for captaining her team in the most matches in ICC Women's Cricket World Cup history. Former Australian women's team captain Belinda Clark's held the previously existing record of 23 games.

Mithali has captained India in 24 World Cup matches now , bagging 15 wins, nine wins and one no result. She will be looking for the tenth in as captain in an ODI World Cup as India look to secure victory against West Indies, who have been the dark horses of the tournament so far, having won 2 of 2 matches.

Belinda Clarke, whose record Mithali broke, led the Australia women's cricket team for 11 years. She captained the national side in three editions of the Women's World Cup in 1997, 2000 and 2005. She won 21 of those 23 games and suffered just a sole defeat as captain.

Mithali has led India in four editions of the Women's World Cup in 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2017. She is the only player to have captained India in more than one ICC Women's World Cup, leading them in the summit final clashes in 2005 and 2017.

Across men's and women's cricket, Mithali is only behind MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly and Mohammad Azharuddin in terms of number of matches captained for India across all formats.

In women's ODIs, Mithali holds the record for most matches played in as captain. She has captained India in 151 ODIs. The other prolific captains in women's ODIs are Charlotte Edwards (117 matches), Belinda Clark (101 matches), Suzie Bates (76 matches) and Merissa Aguilleira (74 matches).