In 2005, Sandeep Mishra came to Baljeet Nagar, a locality in West Delhi, from Allahabad (now Prayagraj). The neighbourhood was home to daily-wage labourers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Back home, he was fed up with the unprofitable returns in farming and, having learnt the work of an electrician, had come to find some work in a big city.
At the time, the expansion of Delhi's metro network was on and the Delhi Metro Railway Corporation needed electricians, so Sandeep, a 30-year-old high-school dropout, found a job. He was blessed with a daughter just months before he came to Delhi, and brought her and the family along two years later. It was not long before that she started playing cricket in the street with the boys.
That irked the neighbours and relatives, who used to taunt Sandeep. But it had little effect on Sandeep, who looked at it as a way for her daughter to get a government job via the sports quota, if nothing else. Like most of his time, Sandeep longingly looked at government jobs for the security they provided. He used to play state-level kabaddi for getting a government job using the sports quota but when that did not work, he dreamt of the same for his children.
That girl now has an India cap and a WPL contract to her name. Priya Mishra, 20, made her international debut last year and has 15 wickets in nine ODIs at an average of 26.60 and a strike rate of 27. She has picked up six wickets in eight league-stage matches of WPL 2025 where Gujarat Giants (GG) have made the playoffs for the first time.
"When I played cricket in the streets, I did not think of it as a career prospect; I used to play with the boys just for fun," Mishra tells ESPNcricinfo. "People used to tease me, saying I am playing with the boys for nothing, as I will have to take care of the house [get married and be a housewife] eventually. But my family, especially my father, supported me a lot."
The turning point in Mishra's life came when her sports teacher at Salwan Girls Senior Secondary School, Priya Chandra, saw her playing cricket. Chandra, a former state-level player, advised her to go to Shravan Kumar, who has coached Ishant Sharma, Harshit Rana, Simran Dil Bahadur and Pratika Rawal among others.
"When an 11-year-old Priya came to me in 2015, she loved batting," Shravan says. "She came to the academy on foot and was also fond of medium-pace bowling. But since she was not tall, I suggested her to bowl spin, because she got the ball to spin sharper than the boys did. It did not take long for her to develop a googly, which is her main weapon now."
Most of Mishra's international wickets have come with the googly, as have all of her six wickets in WPL 2025 so far - Tahlia McGrath, Grace Harris, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Hayley Matthews, Deepti Sharma and Yastika Bhatia. Mishra maintans that the googly is just to deceive the batters and her stock ball is still the legbreak.
"I take wickets from the googly because batters can't read me," she says. "I try to set batters up using legspin, try and attack their feet as much as I can. This makes batters think I can only bowl the legspin, which is when I bowl a googly to pick up wickets."
After enrolling in an academy, Mishra had to travel to various parts of, and sometimes outside, Delhi to play school-, district-, state-level and age-group matches. Since she was young, Sandeep used to accompany her for those, even when he did not get leave from work.
"Irrespective of what happens at work, if Priya had a game to play, I used to always go with her," Sandeep says. "As she progressed in the sport, my seniors became accommodating and I used to get more leaves. That aside, Shravan sir also never took money for coaching and cricketing equipment, which, at that time, was difficult for us to afford."
Mishra made it to the Delhi Under-19 team at the age of 13. She picked up wickets in bundles for two seasons, which meant she made it to Delhi Under-23 team at 15, and then to the senior team at 18. Since then she has 78 wickets in 35 List-A appearances at an average of 16.48 and a strike rate of 21.79. She also has 22 wickets in 26 T20 matches at an economy of a mere 6.85. In August last year, Mishra was part of India A's tour of Australia, where she picked up six wickets in the unofficial Test including four in the first innings. She also returned a five-for in the only unofficial ODI she played.
"I took about 26-27 wickets in nine Under-19 matches in a season and was confident of going to the next level. But there is a big difference in the level of international cricket and domestic cricket," Mishra, who considers Shane Warne her idol, says. "Balls that are a good option in domestic cricket are easily played by international players, so I try and attack the stumps now.
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"T20 cricket is such that you have to think before every ball because batters are there to hit every ball. You have to think about the line that will trap the batter. For now, I am trying to bowl in line of the stumps as much as possible. By doing that, you don't give batters much room and increase your chances of picking up wickets."
At GG, Mishra works with spin-bowling coach Pravin Tambe, who makes her undergo single-wicket drills for a long time. She also exchanges notes with Deepti in the India team.
"I constantly talk to Deepti di and I consider her my second guru. She helps me as much as she can. If she is at slip, she tells me what ball I should be bowling and where I should be bowling. Even Harman di tells me not to be nervous and do what I have been doing thus far."
For now, Mishra is happy she does not have to live on rent in Baljeet Nagar. With her WPL earnings from last year and savings from domestic cricket, she bought a house and a car in 2024. Now her dream is to play long for India and help them win a World Cup on home soil.