Fiery, quick, inspirational, champion. A Paltan favourite, Shabnim Ismail played a major role in Mumbai Indians’ WPL 2025 win, and now back once again in the #OneFamily for the 2026 season, we cannot wait to see her break a few more stumps along the way. We caught up with her for an exclusive chat with mumbaiindians.com. Excerpts.. 

It’s great having you back in the Blue and Gold, Shabnim. Did you have a hunch ahead of the Auction of you returning to MI?

I',m so happy to be back at Mumbai Indians. What a wonderful franchise to be a part of. I have been there for two seasons and have enjoyed myself. I had a slight idea I might go back to MI because they love keeping their family together.

We’ve added two new overseas seamers, Nicola Carey and Milly Illingworth to the mix, who you must have seen in the WBBL. Milly, in fact, even spoke about you being her cricketing idol. A word on what you’ve seen of them in the WBBL.

Super excited for them to be part of the Mumbai Indians family. I think they’ll thoroughly enjoy themselves here. Milly, what a young gun she is! She’s quick, she’s fiery, I actually love watching her bowl. It’s going to be super special for Nic (Carey) as well. She has been swinging the ball like crazy lately. Bringing their skill and talent to the MI team is going to be pretty good for us.

We have to talk about the 2025 WPL Final. Defending a pretty low score, you bowled a dream spell in the powerplay to set the tone. What was your thinking at the halfway stage? Did you think MI had enough runs on the board?

Oh, what a thriller it was! I initially thought the score was a bit below par, but then also, I thought we had the bowlers to defend any total. At the halfway stage, we came together and spoke about keeping it really simple. We knew we had the game. But then when Marizanne Kapp was in the middle, she gave us a bit of a shock. She was going really well. We knew we had to get her wicket. It was very, very stressful. But I always say, the calm heads are the ones that get over the line.

It was a very dominant season for Mumbai Indians, with Nat winning the Orange Cap and the MVP, Amelia winning the Purple Cap, Amanjot winning the emerging player. What are your lasting memories from last year?

We have a pretty special bunch in the team. We’ve got Nat (Sciver-Brunt), we’ve got Healy (Matthews), we’ve got Melie (Amelia Kerr), Amanjot (Kaur), Harry (Harmanpreet Kaur) as the captain. The greatest memory for me was winning the WPL Final. The year before that we lost a close game to RCB, and then coming back and winning the WPL is a memory that will last forever. What makes us so successful is that we believe we are One Family and that’s one thing all players buy into. We all believe in our goal, we walk together, we take baby steps to the top, and whether we win or lose, we stick together as a team.

And lastly, pace and Shabnim have become synonyms. What’s the secret sauce to making sure the pace remains right up there even after international retirement?

I actually get asked this so many times about my speed after retiring from international cricket. For me, it is all about being professional on and off the field, maintaining my body as well as possible. At the age of 37, you know what your body needs and doesn’t. It’s about working out when I need to, making sure I am fit, healthy and ready to go.

The special ingredient is spicy food. I love spicy food. It is one of the things that keeps me going. I still want to be one of the top and quickest bowlers in the world, and I think that has always been my goal. But having said that, I have tried and be as consistent as possible throughout my career. Yeah, just trying to bowl as fast as possible at this age.