A leg-break, a googly, and a World Cup dream: India's latest debutant Priya Mishra's story

"I was in the middle of a game during the under-23 tournament and someone told me. It was the first time my name came like that! My family members called and said you've been signed for 20 lakhs. It was a different kind of feeling because we also won the match (laughs) I got both things!"

It says a lot about Priya Mishra's character that while talking about her first Women's Premier League (WPL) contract--perhaps the biggest moment of her life till 2023--the importance of a domestic age-group game isn't lost on her.

That's the only way it can be as a leg-spinner in cricket, especially when you are all of 20 years, trying to make your way into the World Cup squads. Leg spin is the only facet in the sport where you can't stat-pad, no matter how hard you try.

As a leg-spinner, wickets don't happen until you leave yourself vulnerable to getting smashed. Then, even your most defensive deliveries have quite a tiny margin of error. All you can do is try and land it at a nagging length with the right pace, maybe outthink the batter with your field and hope for the best.

Priya, who recently became the 147th woman to play ODI cricket for India, has taken only five years to reach this level of selflessness and hunger. That's also because, well, she wasn't even a leg-spinner till five years ago.

Originally from Allahabad (now Prayagraj), Priya's family moved to Delhi's Karol Bagh when she was three. Before this decade, she was just another girl who played with boys in her locality until Pooja Chandra, a teacher at her Salwan Girls School, enrolled her in coach Shravan Kumar's cricket academy in Punjabi Bagh.

"I used to bowl medium pace but then he told me, 'Your height is short, you should focus on leg spin,'" Priya recalls in a chat with Sportskeeda.

"At the start, I was not able to bowl leg-spin at all. At one point, I even thought about leaving it! But sir kept calling me and making me do it. I couldn't turn the ball and was flighting it too much. Slowly and step-by-step, he taught me how to use my wrist, and which finger I needed to use. Then I focussed on googly. But then when I used to get better on the googly, my leg-spin would be ruined. Then I would regain the leg-spin and googly would worsen! But somehow he helped me balance both."

There began the journey of a kid who'd clean-bowl a T20 World Cup-winning Sophie Devine in only her second international match.

Perfecting the art

Priya's journey extracted persistence and resolve from her entire family. Her father, who is an electrician with Delhi Metro, mother, elder sister and younger brother, shielded her from misogynistic taunts from their neighbors.

She and Kumar repaid them with their hard work. Priya would train in the morning before going to the academy from 12-6, which would leave her with only enough in the tank to eat food and sleep, before repeating the cycle.

"Shravan sir used to call me before academy timings," Priya says. "He used to say, 'You come early, do your single wicket bowling, and I'll see the rest.' Just for me, he'd come by noon to the academy, even at his age. I used to do a lot of spot-bowling -- sometimes for two hours straight, then bringing all the balls back and doing it all over again. Sir used to stick with me alone. There were other girls too, almost 50 girls come to the academy even now. But he used to come at 12 pm for me. I used to bowl 12-2 alone and then in the nets."

Even education happily adjusted for cricket. Salwan Girls School often allowed her enough off days to let her focus on her career. Then she switched to Open Schooling which doesn't require attending classes.

The educational chaos caused by COVID-19 allowed her to take the exams for class ninth, which she had to drop out of earlier due to a tournament. Now, she's waiting for a window to take her 12th exams.

Her efforts came into the limelight last year when she topped the wickets charts in the 2023-24 Women’s Senior One-Day Trophy. Delhi reached the semi-finals and Priya took 23 wickets (five more than the next-best) at an average of 9.86.

"I already had the confidence," Priya says. "I wanted to bowl well and win games for the team. The seniors and coaches were very helpful and explained to me how to go about things. They used to tell me that the opposition players would be older but I shouldn't see who's batting, just do my thing. That's what I did."

The same learnings took another step in her stint at Gujarat Giants in the WPL. She didn't play but coaches Nooshin Al Khadeer and Mithali Raj gave her the confidence to bowl how she liked it and helped her improve fielding.

New experiences

The WPL was followed by an India 'A' women's tour of Australia in August. Priya featured in two matches: a fifty-over game where she took five wickets for 14 runs and an unofficial Test which saw figures of 4/58 and 2/59 across two innings.

"They weren't reading my googlies," Priya recalls. "I don't know what was happening! (laughs) I thought they were from outside India and they would be able to manage but it wasn't much different from bowling in India. The same ideas that work here worked there too. I was just bowling in the spot, what I have done from the start."

Outside the scorecards, there was a roller-coaster: there were Gold Coast sightseeing trips and shopping but also sickness and life-saving friendships.

"Raghavi (Bisht) and Uma (Chetry) were very helpful. I didn't know any English so Raghavi used to teach me, this person is saying this, that person is saying that. And food was a big problem. I couldn't get much good food. And I am a pure vegetarian! It was very difficult. I even got sick. I had a fever when I was bowling all those overs... It was my first experience, I thought there would at least be something to eat!"

For weeks Priya survived on rice, packaged noodles, and foods like Cheelas (Indian pancake made with lentils and grain flours) that Bisht made.

"I didn't even tell my family," she said. "I only told them afterward because otherwise they would have been worried sick, thinking, 'How did this happen? How serious is it?' So I just didn't tell."

The efforts showed their worth when Priya got called up for India's ODI series against New Zealand at home. She had been around the team before, often as a reserve, but with a few absentees and the team looking to test some players, this was Priya's best chance to make a mark in the grand stadium in Ahmedabad.

With India leading the three-match series 1-0, Priya got to know on the morning of the second ODI that she was making her debut. The first thing she did was tell her mother, who gave her the typical motherly advice: give your best, don't be anxious.

"Harman di then hugged me, saying, "Tu playing mein hai bhai, khush hoja" (Be happy, brother, you are in the playing 11). That was another level of happiness -- I thought if she has said it and she's supporting, I'll manage now."

Her debut started on the right note, with her idol and favorite player ("everyone's favorite" too) Harmanpreet handing over the debut cap in the team huddle. Priya thought about how this was just the start and shifted focus to the job at hand.

She was nervous again, thinking about if she'd be able to land the ball in the right areas, when Harmanpreet called her up to bowl immediately after the powerplay, with New Zealand's openers Suzie Bates and Georgia Plimmer unbeaten. Back home, her parents were simultaneously in prayers for her first wicket.

Priya told herself, "We'll see what happens, just bowl" and almost got Bates out LBW first ball, as she missed a googly that was going just over the stumps; India didn't review. The Kiwi legend read half of her deliveries but the accurate and varied-in-pace googlies continued to trouble her throughout her stay.

"The only thing in my mind was that I shouldn't let her touch the ball, 'isko ball chhappe hi na!'," Priya says.

Luck would test Priya out further. She got her fingers on a drive from Bates, which ran Lauren Down out on the non-striker's end but on either side of it, Deepti Sharma and Radha Yadav dropped two catches off her bowling.

Priya's maiden wicket finally came in the 32nd over of the innings, with Radha compensating for earlier by taking one of the all-time stunning catches running back and diving at covers to dismiss a shell-shocked Brook Halliday.

"Initially, when I was bowling, catches were going down and I thought, 'What is happening? Why is this happening today? All the good fielders are dropping catches!'," Priya said. "Then the catch Radha didi picked was unbelievable. At first, I thought it had passed her and wouldn't be taken but she made such a good effort to take the catch, it made me very happy that, 'Hush, I have got my first wicket'."

Although India lost the match, Priya had made a strong impression with her tenacity. The final ODI was a much better display of her skills. Again coming after the powerplay, she got Devine out bowled on a googly on just her fourth delivery.

Her tails up, and with her team asking her to be aggressive even when she got hit for a couple of boundaries, Priya was almost unplayable half of the time and eventually weathered down Plimmer on a turning leg-break for 39, and followed it up by confidently pointing her index finger to the pitch in celebration.

"When Devine got bowled I felt yes, now I can take more wickets. I got that confidence. Then, that celebration, it meant, 'I am still here!'... Earlier, my googly used to fall a bit waywardly but in this series, I was able to bowl it right on the off-stump, where I wanted. Everyone was helping. And even if bowled a couple of loose balls and got hit for a four or two, they continued to back me, 'Tu out karne ja, ek chauke se kuch nahi hota hai' (It's just one boundary, you keep trying to get them out!)"

The performances were also good enough for the Gujarat Giants to retain her ahead of the WPL 2025 auction. Head coach Michael Klinger's press conference comments after the retentions were announced suggested that Priya had even gone ahead of Sneh Rana, who was released, in the team's pecking order.

Future

It's hard to tell where leg spinners get the confidence from, but the very best of them manage to float over the stubborn seaweeds of cutthroat competition. More than the stats, it's this ability to stick to her guns that has stood her apart.

Her spells were a breath of fresh air. The team has lacked the aggression that Poonam Yadav brought in the middle-overs till a couple of years ago. In addition, the 20-year-old brings a bit more pace and accuracy plus a huge ceiling to grow.

"Confidence comes from inside, you should always have it..." Priya says. "That's just me thinking to myself, "Yahi tera pehla aur akhri mauka hai. Aaj karegi toh khelegi, nahi toh fir bench hi ho!" (This is your first and last chance, if you play well you'll move forward otherwise be happy with being benched) So it comes automatically, that I 'have' to take wickets."

Now, as an international star, her life has started to change slowly, with sponsorship deals and offers coming her way regularly. She has left that to her managers Nisarg Naik and Ankit Patel to manage.

"Nisarg bhaiya and Ankit handle all my sponsorships and external matters. They’re incredibly supportive, managing everything outside of cricket so I can stay focused on the game."

Priya says that in the short term, she isn't trying to add new skills and risk ruining "what is working so well" but wants to build on her strengths. And the focus is so unwavering, that before you can complete the question about her goals, she quips:

"I want to win India the World Cup. The 2026 one. We have to take revenge! All work is towards that."

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