India captain Mithali Raj and her team left a blazing trail behind them in the ICC Women’s World Cup behind them. While their performance in the tournament caught the eye, the outspoken attitude of Raj also gained her plaudits.
But, social media is full of those who consider themselves the gatekeepers of culture and they surfaced once again with Mithali Raj in their cross hairs. She recently posted what she described a “postshoot selfie.” Immediately, many comments appeared on her timeline deriding her for her attire. The negative comments ranged from those telling her that they “didn’t expect” this attire from her to those telling her to be “be an Indian woman.”

This time, though, the number of people deriding the trolls seem to have outnumbered the trolls themselves. Many tweets appeared that simply commended the pic or answered the trolls. Many pointed out that she has the right to wear whatever it is that she wants to and that she is “the nation’s pride.”

Sportsperson are often the target of trolls on social media. The likes of Irfan Pathan and Mohammed Shami have drawn comments for pics they post with their wives. This is the first time that such comments have been aimed at India’s women cricket team captain. Mithali Raj, though, doesn’t seem fazed by them. In fact, she showed that she indeed is ‘Captain Cool’ during the World Cup. A pic of her calmly reading a novel before going out to bat in the first match against hosts England had gone viral. If facing bowlers in a World Cup cannot faze her, there is very little that social media trolls can achieve with these comments.