Ahead of the upcoming Women’s Premier League (WPL 2026) season, the Mumbai Indians (MI) franchise has signed a new spin bowling coach in former Australia legspinner Kristen Beams. The 41-year-old Aussie will become the second newest member in the MI coaching setup after they secured Lisa Keightley as head coach earlier this year in September, who was with the Delhi Capitals (DC) for the last three seasons.
Apart from Keightley, Beams will join bowling coach and mentor Jhulan Goswami, batting coach Devika Palshikar and fielding coach Nicole Bolton in the MI support staff.
Speaking about the recent development, the new MI spin bowling coach Kristen Beams said in the announcement video,
“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. [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.”
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Speaking about her coaching credentials in franchise cricket, Beams has experience of working in the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) and The Hundred Women’s. Apart from that, she has also served as Coach of the Australia Women’s U19 Team and held the position of National Development Lead at Cricket Australia (CA). Her most recent gig was as a Community Cricket Manager at Cricket Tasmania.
Talking about her playing career, the leg-spinner played for her country across all three formats. Overall, Kristen Beams featured in 1 Test, 30 ODIs, and 18 T20Is. Amongst her notable achievements was finishing as the third-highest wicket-taker at the 2017 ODI World Cup. She also plied her trade in T20 cricket, featuring in a total of 45 WBBL games for the Melbourne Stars Women from 2015-2020.
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