Punam Raut Retires From International Cricket After 12-Year Career

Punam Raut announced her retirement from international cricket on Thursday, a day after her 37th birthday. The India batter said in an Instagram post that the decision covers all formats and takes effect immediately.

Punam Raut in action during the 2017 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup, where she scored 381 runs for India.

Punam Raut's International Cricket Retirement and Career

Raut played for India from 2009 to 2021, about 12 years. She appeared in four Tests, 73 ODIs and 35 T20Is. She has not played for India since 2021, so the announcement makes official a long absence from the squad. In a November 2021 interview she described being dropped after good performances as disappointing. Her statement refers to international cricket only. She thanked the Mumbai Cricket Association for backing her in her early years and did not mention her domestic career.

Punam Raut's 2017 World Cup Journey

The 2017 World Cup is the centre of her record. She scored 381 runs in nine matches, the fifth-highest total of the tournament, with 86 against England in India’s opening win and a hundred against Australia at Bristol. She made 86 again in the final at Lord’s. After she was out, India lost their last seven wickets for 28 runs and the match by nine runs.

Punam Raut played a crucial 86-run innings in India's 2017 Women's World Cup final against England at Lord's.

Career Records and Key Moments

In ODIs she scored 2,299 runs at 34.83 with three centuries and 15 fifties. One of those hundreds came in May 2017, when she and Deepti Sharma put on 320 for the first wicket against Ireland, a world record at the time. Raut retired hurt on 109 and Deepti made 188. In Tests she scored 264 runs at an average of 44, including a hundred against South Africa in 2014.

On 1 October 2021, in the pink-ball Test against Australia at Carrara, she walked off on 36 after edging a ball the umpire had not given out. There was no DRS in use.

Her retirement post says the 2017 tournament “inspired a generation of young girls.” A franchise league, the WPL, began in 2023. In November 2025 India beat South Africa by 52 runs in Navi Mumbai for their first World Cup. Raut had not played for India for four years by then. She played four Tests in 12 years, and the pink-ball match was India’s first Test against Australia in 15 years.