WPL: Priya Mishra, the Delhi leggie who mixes fire with ice
Priya Mishra, a leg-spinner from Delhi, balances aggression on the field with calm off it, aiming for a strong performance in the upcoming ODI World Cup.
Lucknow: Priya Mishra giggles at her friend and Gujarat Giants teammate Kashvee Gautam as they cross each other in the corridor for their respective media interactions. Their bond, everyone knows, is something else.
According to Kashvee, Priya must rein in her aggression, but Priya disagrees. She may be a petite, wily leg-spinner but the fact that she’s from Delhi takes precedence over everything else.
“I am something else in the field and something else off it,” Priya told HT. “I get very angry in the field. When a batter is hitting me with a shot, I get very angry. Off it, I am very calm but Delhi, Virat Kohli... you get the drill! Chill bandi hoon warna toh.”
For most cricketers, playing in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) is often the pathway to the senior women’s Indian team. But Priya’s career has been a bit of an anomaly. She made her debut for India in October last year, before which she played for India A against Australia A in August.
In 2025, she made her WPL debut and has picked up five wickets in six matches so far.
Her coach Shravan Kumar – who has also coached the likes of Ishant Sharma and Harshit Rana – was delighted when two of his wards Priya and opener Pratika Rawal both made it to the Indian team and called Priya one of his most hardworking students.
Likewise, Priya credits coach Shravan for being her most consistent supporter since she started her career in 2013. For about six months, Priya did not take cricket too seriously. Flying kites was where her heart felt truly happy. But the happiness of receiving her first-ever kit-bag from her coach beat that.
“I used to keep telling my mother that it’s beautiful. I used to bat and bowled medium pace for two years. But my friends said that I am short and should not stick with pace-bowling and so I asked coach if I could become a spinner.”
“He asked me if I wanted to be a leg-spinner or an off-spinner and to be honest, I just went with what sounded better,” laughed Priya. “Maine bola ball pair pe patakni hai, leg-spinner hi ban jaati hoon.”
For years after that decision, Priya would spend hours trying to make her wrist work like her inspiration – the legendary Shane Warne. Today, she boasts of a solid googly that most batters struggle to read.
Sophie Devine, for example was one of her victims in the third ODI in Ahmedabad in October. Priya had outfoxed the New Zealand captain as she tried to cut it away but missed, with the ball hitting the top of off and whipping out the bails. Priya smiles as she remembers her favourite wicket till date, even five months hence.
Getting to share the Gujarat Giants dressing room with the likes of Ash Gardner, Deandra Dottin, Laura Wolvaardt has added to the exposure. When she returns to the Indian team, she looks forward to her conversations with Deepti Sharma and the healthy competition with fellow Delhiite Pratika.
“With Pratika, it is very easy to understand each other. She just knows what I am going to say and I know which shot she is going to play.”
“We have a competition between us. In the nets, it’s about who will dismiss who, who will hit which shot,” laughs Priya.
The Patel Nagar resident is aware that she is part of the big leagues but is aware that she must performing to retain her place, especially with the ODI World Cup set to be held in India later this year.
