The international career of Amit Mishra had its good and bad moments. He had two opposite phases in his career, one, when he was under the pressure of filling the shoes of Anil Kumble, and the second when he was competing with the emergence of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who became the first choice of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli.
The leg-spinner has confessed that it was physically exhausting to be in and out of the Indian team.
“It was a very disappointing thing. Sometimes you’re in the team, sometimes you’re out. Sometimes you get a chance in the playing eleven, sometimes you don’t. Of course, it’s frustrating, and I was frustrated many times, no doubt,” Mishra said in an interview with PTI Videos.
He attempted to remain positive even though disappointed. “But then you remember that your dream is to play cricket for India. You are with the national team, and millions of people are working so hard just to be there. You are one of the 15 players on the Indian team. So, I tried to stay positive.”
The IPL revitalized Mishra and he credited his international career to the league. It took a turn in 2008 season when he achieved his famous hat-trick with the Delhi Daredevils.
“I’d say the defining moment was the hat-trick I took in the 2008 IPL, where I also took five wickets in the match. From there, I made a comeback to the Indian team,” he recalled. He was an established domestic cricketer but he needed the IPL exposure before he was put back on national radar.
He concluded his IPL career having taken 174 wickets in 162 matches and even that legendary hat-trick in the very first edition of the league. Mishra acknowledged that both IPL and domestic tournament performances helped him to believe that he could remain relevant in competitive cricket.
In retrospect, Mishra admitted that there are those players who would seamlessly work in the plans of the captain.
“Some players are captain’s favourites. But that doesn’t matter much. You just have to prove yourself whenever you get a chance. As I said, these things don’t matter. Sometimes a player who performs better than you is liked more, but when you start performing, it all changes.”
Bowling to Indian batters he also found more difficult than overseas “Whenever I took the wicket of a well-known Indian player, I felt proud. Someone like Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, or Virat Kohli-they are the kind of players who can change the game at any moment.”
Mishra had a pleasant memory of his Test debut in Mohali in 2008 when he was given a chance by Anil Kumble after the latter suffered an injury. He replied by taking five wickets and was declared the Player of the Match.
Mishra served 25 years of career, during this time he was playing with cricketing giants more than 30 years. “I’ve played cricket for 25 years across three decades with legends like Sachin Tendulkar, under leaders like MS Dhoni, and with current stars like Rohit Sharma. Now that I’m slowly stepping away, it’s emotional, of course. Cricket gave me everything — respect, identity, and purpose.”
And closing his career without regrets, he said, “Not everyone gets a grand farewell or big press conference, and that’s okay. What matters to me is that I gave everything I had. I played with heart. I performed whenever I got the opportunity. And I’ve earned the love of fans and the respect of my peers — that’s my biggest achievement.”
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