Mumbai Indians appoint Kristen Beams as spin bowling coach

Mumbai Indians have announced the appointment of Kristen Beams as spin bowling coach for the 2026 Women's Premier League season.

The leg-spinner represented Australia across all three formats, playing 1 Test, 30 ODIs, and 18 T20Is during her international career. Beams was the third-highest wicket-taker at the 2017 ODI World Cup and also featured in 45 Women's Big Bash League matches before retiring from playing.

Since transitioning into coaching, Beams has worked in the WBBL and The Hundred. She has served as Coach of the Australia Women's U19 Team and held the position of National Development Lead at Cricket Australia. Most recently, she worked as Community Cricket Manager - South at Cricket Tasmania.

At the two-time WPL champions, Beams will join a support staff headed by coach Lisa Keightley, bowling coach and mentor Jhulan Goswami, batting coach Devika Palshikar and fielding coach Nicole Bolton.

"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 MI's Instagram post. "[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."

MI, champions in two out of the three WPL seasons held so far, will kick off the next season on January 9 against 2024 champions RCB.