Mumbai Indians rope in Kristen Beams as spin-bowling coach ahead of the WPL 2026

Mumbai Indians have appointed former Australia leg-spinner Kristen Beams as their spin-bowling coach ahead of the fifth season of the Women's Premier League (WPL). The 41-year-old will join head coach Lisa Keightley, the bowling coach and mentor of the team, Jhulan Goswami, batting coach Devika Palshikar, and compatriot Nicole Bolton, who is the fielding coach.

Beams played 30 ODIs and 18 T20Is for Australia, claiming 42 and 20 wickets, and at economy rates of 3.79 and 5.26, respectively. She also played a Test match against England in August 2015 in Canterbury.

Beams expressed delight at the prospect of working in tandem with Goswami and a team that has produced the goods consistently since the inception of the marquee tournament.

"It's an incredible opportunity to work with someone like a Jhulan Goswami, one of the greats of the game, somebody I played cricket against," Beams said in a post on X. "[It's an] incredible culture...that they've developed a winning culture over a really long period of time, but a family that's what you hear everyone talk about that this group is so tight-knit, and it's a family and it's what you want to be a part of. And I think as a coach coming in, that's exactly what you want to be able to do, is to walk into an environment that feels really tight-knit, and a team that knows how to win."

Spin आणि win ची recipe घेऊन #AaliRe 💙

Paltan, let's welcome our new spin bowling coach, Kristen Beams 🙌#MumbaiIndians #TATAWPL pic.twitter.com/5xUrJgkaC5

— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) December 29, 2025

Mumbai Indians retain core at WPL 2026 auction

Mumbai Indians retained their core at the WPL 2026 auction. They splurged INR 3 crore to procure Amelia Kerr and INR 60 lakhs to rope in Shabnim Ismail. Both overseas players had played a monumental role in helping Mumbai Indians dominate in the previous seasons.

MI squad for WPL 2026:

Harmanpreet Kaur (INR 2.5 crore), G Kamalini (INR 50 lakh), Rahila Firdous (INR 10 lakh, Nat Sciver-Brunt (INR 3.5 crore), Hayley Matthews (INR 1.75 crore), Amanjot Kaur (INR 1 crore), Amelia Kerr (INR 3 crore), Sanskriti Gupta (INR 20 lakh), S Sajana (INR 75 lakh), Nicola Carey (INR 30 lakh), Triveni Vasistha (INR 20 lakh), Nalla Reddy (INR 10 lakh), Poonam Khemnar (INR 10 lakh), Saika Ishaque (INR 30 lakh), Shabnim Ismail (INR 60 lakh), Milly Illingworth (INR 10 lakh)