Why Shikha Pandey remains in big demand despite not playing for India

Shikha Pandey has been the best Indian bowler in the WPL, but she has not played for India since the WPL began in 2023.

In all, 77 Indians played in the first three seasons of the WPL, and many of them have not played for the national team. But to understand Pandey's story, and the unusualness of it, we have to go back a few years.

Since the start of 2018 and until Covid brought cricket to a halt in March 2020, Pandey was a key player in India's setup. She had picked up 24 wickets in 28 T20Is; no other seamer played as much or took as many wickets for India in that period. Jhulan Goswami had retired from T20Is in August 2018, and Pandey became the leader of India's pace attack. She was expected to take over from Goswami in other formats as well but when that time came, in July 2022, she was nowhere near the national side.

Fifteen months later, India brought Pandey in just before the 2023 Women's T20 World Cup but her comeback lasted all of six matches.

At the inaugural WPL auction, which took place during that T20 World Cup, Delhi Capitals (DC) and Gujarat Giants bid for her and DC picked her up for INR 60 lakh; INR 20 lakh above her base price.

When she started playing for India, Pandey was looked at primarily as a new-ball bowler. But through the last three WPL seasons, against top international batters, she evolved into something far greater. Ten of her 30 wickets in the tournament were reward for her work in the death overs (17-20). No fast bowler has taken more during this phase.

It is this versatility that both UP Warriorz (UPW) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) recognised when they went on a bidding war for 36-year-old Pandey at the WPL 2026 auction. UPW finally got her at INR 2.4 crore; six times her base price of INR 40 lakh. That RCB put in their last bid at INR 2.2 crore, when they had only INR 2.85 crore available and eight slots to fill, spoke volumes.

"She's someone who has always been a very meticulous planner, whether it's tactically, whether it's on her skill or even fitness-wise," Ananya Upendran, former India A allrounder and DC's talent scout, tells ESPNcricinfo.

"Ever since I've seen her, which is 2007-08 when we played Under-19, even then when you wouldn't have videos of domestic opposition players and stuff, she would still keep notes of opposition batters or remember really specific things. She also understands what her skills and strengths are, and watches what bowlers similar to her do against batters she's going to face. Regardless of whether she's playing international cricket or domestic cricket, that's always been one of the things that has stood out about her.

"And then there's the whole factor that she's one of the only Indian seamers who can bowl in all three phases of the game. Going from being primarily a new-ball bowler to developing her skills at the death and in the middle phases, to changes of pace, working on her yorker, building confidence in her bouncer - I think she always had that delivery but was very reluctant to use it. A lot of mental and tactical work is what has always kept her slightly ahead."

Only eight bowlers have taken five or more wickets in every phase of an innings in the WPL. Pandey is in that group. She also has the joint-most wickets in the first two overs of a WPL innings. She has bowled the first over four times, picking up one wicket, and the second over 15 times picking up four wickets. Nat Sciver-Brunt and Marizanne Kapp also have five wickets in the first two overs of an innings but they have bowled more frequently - 22 and 24 times respectively.

Pandey has not taken a wicket in just seven of her 27 WPL innings, which highlights how consistently she is a threat. She's established a 74.1% chance of breaking through for her team. Among Indian bowlers, only Kashvee Gautam, with a smaller sample size (9 matches), beats her (77.8%) in an overall group of 51 who have bowled in at least five innings.

"Chiku (Pandey) will more often than not give you a breakthrough in her first spell," Biju George, former India fielding coach and the assistant coach of Trinbago Knight Riders in the WCPL, says. "She has an insight on each and every player, you talk to her about any player in world cricket, she is a walking encyclopedia. Abhishek [Nayar, UPW head coach] will be extra pleased to have her. She is always the one to lead discussions in team meetings, gives her 150%, and is a very safe fielder. She is an asset to any team. She is one of the best, hard-working cricketers I have ever seen.

"She wants to compete with the best and come out as the best."

The urge to get better has taken Pandey places, from club cricket with Wynnum Manly in Queensland to Brisbane Heat in the WBBL, Canterbury Magicians in the Super Smash, and TKR in the WCPL. It has also made her switch domestic sides; she moved to Baroda before the 2024-25 season after playing for Goa for nearly 18 years.

"She has always been quite clear on wanting to try and be the best player she can be, regardless of the level she's playing at," Upendran says. "As someone who is naturally very ambitious, she still, of course, harbours hopes of playing for the country. But I think right now what you see with her is she has found some level of peace just playing the game and trying to get better at her craft.

"Baroda is a quite young team, but they've always punched above their weight. They've always been a very spin-heavy team. I think she saw that as an opportunity to ply her trade in a team that's growing, in a team that's very competitive but also in a team where she wouldn't be the only central figure. With Goa, for many, many years, people saw her, and to some extent Sunanda [Yetrekar], as the only threat. So to carry the weight of a domestic team for close to a decade or maybe even more takes its toll."

Playing with more freedom also allowed Pandey to unlock her batting abilities a bit more. From the lower middle order, she scored 127 runs (third most for Baroda) in six innings at the Senior Women's T20 Trophy at a strike rate of 154.87 (seventh best in the competition).

"I'm really excited to work with Shikha again," Meg Lanning, who captained Pandey at DC and will lead UPW in 2026, said. "Thoroughly enjoyed playing alongside her previously, and she's just very experienced. She knows her game really well. She knows what her strengths are, and what her different options are as well, and very cool and calm under pressure. Often, in this format, you are under the pump a lot as a bowler. So, I think she provides that for our team."

The other advantage to Pandey's presence is her mentoring. Having gained vast experience across the world at various levels, she is never shy of having a chat with youngsters, or even her peers.

"Shikha has started to help younger players develop. Like even within the WPL set-up with DC, when VJ Joshita was part of the net bowling group, they would have a lot of chats," Upendran says. "Shikha would watch her bowl and they would talk about things she can improve, whether it was tactical or technical things, whether it was about training and things that she would need to focus on to get better or play at a higher level.

"If she sees anyone talking about cricket, she tries and gets into the conversation. Even during her time training in Queensland, she did talk about how she had conversations with Grace Harris, with Georgia Redmayne, and even Grace Parsons, for that matter, who has not played international cricket. Anyone who's willing to talk cricket, you will find Shikha there, talking to them about cricket."

Lanning concurs. "I think she'll be able to lead our pace-bowling attack and provide some real good guidance for those bowlers there and help me in that role as well. She's shown that she's a proven performer across the whole innings. The other thing is she can open the bowling, she can through the middle, and she can finish at the death. So as a captain to have someone like that in your team, that just makes my job a little bit easier."

Pandey heads into WPL 2026 to play for a side that hasn't reached the playoffs since the inaugural season. If she can help UPW change that narrative, the India dream can be a reality again. Especially since the 2026 T20 World Cup is in England, where fast bowlers could play a prominent role.