Amit Mishra Returns to Delhi Capitals as Spin Bowling Coach for IPL 2027

The OG Tiger is home. The Amit Mishra Delhi Capitals spin bowling coach appointment for IPL 2027 is now official, and the decision closes a circle that opened in the first season of the league in 2008. Mishra is the highest wicket taker in the history of the Delhi franchise, with 106 wickets in 99 matches across two long stints in the capital. The former India leg spinner retired from all forms of cricket on 4 September 2025, and this role is the first coaching job of his career. He joins a rebuilt support staff led by head coach Sourav Ganguly, with Yuvraj Singh as assistant coach and batting coach and Chaminda Vaas in charge of the fast bowling group. For a franchise that traded lead spinner Kuldeep Yadav to Lucknow Super Giants in June 2026, the move gives the spin department a mentor who knows every corner of the home ground and every pressure moment of the tournament.

Amit Mishra Delhi Capitals Spin Bowling Coach Appointment

Delhi Capitals announced the appointment on their social media handles on Wednesday, 21 October 2026, and the message was written for the fans who have followed Mishra since 2008. The franchise posted: “The OG Tiger has returned! Amit Mishra, our highest ever wicket-taker, is now our spin-bowling coach.” A second post from the franchise read: “2008 to 2027. Welcome back home, Mishra ji.” The words highest ever wicket-taker are not a slogan. They are a fact of the record book, and no bowler in the history of the franchise has taken more wickets for Delhi than Mishra.

The man himself sounded like a cricketer who had waited for this phone call. In a video shared by the franchise, Mishra said: “Dilli dilwallon ki hai,” a line that says Delhi belongs to the people with a large heart. He added: “Dilli is my heartbeat. We will try to give the happiness to the Dilli fans, which they have been waiting for these many years.” He also played on the Tiger name that the franchise gave him in the announcement and said: “A tiger is the one who never leaves his prey.” The quotes carry a clear promise. Delhi Capitals have never won the IPL title, and the new spin coach has told the fans in plain words that the wait is the target of the new setup.

The appointment did not arrive out of the blue. News agency IANS had reported in September 2026 that Mishra was already present at a short camp and trials of the franchise at a ground in Aerocity in New Delhi, alongside Vaas and Yuvraj Singh. The backroom team has therefore been working together for weeks before the public announcement. Mishra takes the spin brief inside a structure where Ganguly leads the group, Yuvraj Singh works with the batters, and Vaas runs the fast bowling unit. The spin role is a specialist role, and Delhi have handed it to a specialist who bowled leg spin in the league for 16 seasons.

The Playing Career in Numbers

Few bowlers have served the IPL for as long as Mishra. He played in every season of the tournament from 2008 to 2024, with the single exception of 2022, and he wore the colours of four franchises. The journey began with Delhi Daredevils in 2008, moved to Deccan Chargers in 2011 and Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2013, returned to Delhi in 2015 for a second stint of seven seasons, and closed with Lucknow Super Giants in 2023 and 2024. Across 162 matches he took 174 wickets at an average of 23.82 and an economy rate of 7.37, numbers that place him among the leading wicket takers the league has ever seen. His best figures of 5 for 17 came in his very first match of the tournament, a spell that still shapes his story.

The Delhi chapter is the heart of the record. In 99 matches for Delhi Daredevils and Delhi Capitals, Mishra took 106 wickets at an average of 23.69 and an economy rate of 7.36. Ten of his sixteen IPL seasons were spent in the capital, and he remains the leading wicket taker of the franchise by a clear margin. The India career ran alongside the league years. Mishra represented India from 2003 to 2017 and played 22 Tests, 36 One Day Internationals and 10 T20 Internationals, with 156 wickets across the three formats. He took five wickets on his Test debut against Australia at Mohali in 2008, he equalled the world record of Javagal Srinath with 18 wickets in a bilateral ODI series in Zimbabwe in 2013, and he was part of the India squad that won the Champions Trophy in 2013 and reached the final of the T20 World Cup in 2014. In domestic cricket he turned out for Haryana for more than two decades. He announced his retirement on 4 September 2025 at the age of 42, and he said that recurring injuries and the wish to give young players a chance guided the decision.

Three Hat-Tricks, Three Teams, One Record

One record lifts Mishra above every other bowler in the history of the league: he is the only bowler with three hat-tricks in the IPL, and each one came for a different franchise. The full list of hat-tricks in IPL history sits in our guide to every hat-trick in IPL history, and the three entries of Mishra show a bowler who produced the magic moment again and again across six seasons.

The first hat-trick arrived on 15 May 2008 in Delhi, and it arrived in his first match of the tournament. Delhi Daredevils posted 194 for 4 against Deccan Chargers at the ground now known as the Arun Jaitley Stadium, and Mishra closed the chase in the final over. He removed Ravi Teja, Pragyan Ojha and RP Singh off consecutive deliveries to complete the hat-trick, finished with figures of 5 for 17, and Delhi won the match by 12 runs. He was named Player of the Match. The spell announced a 25 year old leg spinner to the league, and Mishra himself has called that evening the defining moment of his IPL career because it carried him back into the India team.

The second hat-trick came on 21 May 2011 at Dharamsala, this time in the colours of Deccan Chargers against Kings XI Punjab. Deccan had posted 198 for 2, and Mishra broke the chase in the 16th over with the wickets of Ryan McLaren, Mandeep Singh and Ryan Harris in a row. He finished with 4 for 9, Deccan won by 82 runs, and Mishra collected another Player of the Match award. The third hat-trick came on 17 April 2013 at Pune, for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Pune Warriors India. Sunrisers had made only 119 for 8, a total that Mishra himself lifted with 30 runs off 24 balls, and Pune needed 14 runs from the last two overs. Mishra took the ball for the 19th over and ended the match almost on his own: Angelo Mathews fell first, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rahul Sharma and Ashok Dinda then fell in consecutive deliveries for the hat-trick. Four wickets fell in the over, the innings closed, and Mishra was Player of the Match again. No other bowler has taken three IPL hat-tricks. Yuvraj Singh, who now shares the Delhi dressing room with Mishra as a coach, stands next on the list with two.

The Rebuilt Delhi Capitals Coaching Staff for IPL 2027

The Mishra appointment is the final piece of a coaching rebuild that began after a poor IPL 2026 season. Delhi Capitals finished sixth in 2026 and missed the playoffs, and the franchise responded with a full change of the backroom team. The earlier clear-out, in which the previous staff made way and Ganguly took charge, is covered in our report on the Delhi Capitals coaching staff change for IPL 2027. Hemang Badani left the head coach role, assistant coach Ian Bell departed, and bowling coach Munaf Patel also moved on after two seasons in the job.

Sourav Ganguly now leads the staff as head coach. Yuvraj Singh has come in as assistant coach and batting coach. The pace department sits with a fast bowling great of Sri Lanka, after Chaminda Vaas joined Delhi Capitals as bowling coach and replaced Munaf Patel. Mishra completes the structure as the spin bowling coach. The group is heavy with experience: a former India captain in charge, a World Cup winner with the batters, a World Cup winner with the fast bowlers, and the most successful spinner in the history of the franchise with the spin group. Delhi have built a staff of former players who have lived the pressure of the tournament from inside the dressing room.

What Mishra Brings to the Delhi Capitals Spin Group

The timing of this appointment matters because the spin group of Delhi Capitals is in transition. In June 2026 the franchise completed the biggest trade of the window and sent Kuldeep Yadav to Lucknow Super Giants in the deal that brought Rishabh Pant back to Delhi. Kuldeep took 72 wickets in 65 matches for Delhi, and his exit removed the leader of the spin attack. The franchise has since brought in young leg spinner Zeeshan Ansari from Sunrisers Hyderabad, and the leg spin pair of Vipraj Nigam and Rehan Ahmed also sit in the wider squad picture ahead of the retention deadline. Captain Axar Patel remains the senior spin option inside the playing eleven with his left arm spin and his all round value. Readers can see the full current squad list on our Delhi Capitals squad page.

This is the group that Mishra will coach, and the fit is easy to see. Ansari, Nigam and Ahmed are young wrist spinners at the start of the journey, and they now have a mentor who bowled wrist spin in this league for 16 seasons and solved the same problems on the same grounds. The craft of Mishra was built on flight, patience and the googly. He tossed the ball above the eye line of the batter, invited the big shot, and beat the swing with drift and turn. That method is the opposite of the flat and fast spin that many young bowlers copy, and a season under Mishra can teach the young group when to attack, when to defend, and how to hold nerve in the final overs. His record at the home ground adds another layer. The Arun Jaitley Stadium has short boundaries that punish error, and the surface often gives the spinner grip as the match moves on. Mishra took the first hat-trick of his career on that ground in 2008, and he knows from direct experience how a spinner wins matches in the capital. For Axar Patel, the value sits in planning: a senior spinner in the staff room can help the captain set fields, pick matchups and time the overs of spin through the middle phase.

The Road to IPL 2027

The work of the new staff starts long before the first ball of the season. The ten franchises of the IPL must submit the final lists of retained and released players by 15 November 2026, and those lists will decide which spinners stay in Delhi and which names go back into the pool. The mini auction follows on 16 December 2026 at the ITC Grand Goa, with the auction briefing a day earlier, and the Delhi table will have Ganguly and his staff in place to shape the squad. The season itself is expected to begin in March 2027.

The target for the season is clear and it has waited a long time. Delhi Capitals entered the league in 2008 and the trophy cabinet of the franchise is still empty, with one final appearance in 2020 the closest the team has come. The fans of the capital have backed the side through every rebuild, and the franchise has now answered a sixth place finish with the most decorated coaching group in its history. Amit Mishra told the fans that Dilli is his heartbeat. From 15 November to the auction table and then to the first match of IPL 2027, the OG Tiger has the chance to deliver the happiness he promised, this time with a whiteboard in his hand instead of the ball.

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