Sushant Mishra, the rookie Rajasthan Royals (RR) bowler, has opened up about how the head coach of Gujarat Titans (GT), Ashish Nehra, supported him through the difficult period of injury and helped to adjust his perspective. Before moving to RR, Titans acquired Sushant for an impressive INR 2.20 crore at the IPL 2024 auction, but he did not get a chance to play.
In his discussion with ESPNcricinfo, the left-arm fast bowler talked about his working relationship with Nehra, who keeps on checking him out to update with his progress. He shared that the GT head coach was planning with him and told him to be aggressive.
“I had an incredible time working with Ashish Nehra. Even after eight-nine months when IPL was over, he would still keep asking me for updates regarding my injury, my rehab, and how I was doing. We often sat together and watched a number of games. He keeps on talking about strategies, he makes it a point that I am still involved in the game even when I am not playing. He used to say that as a fast bowler, you should be aggressive. You have to cast away the thoughts of escaping. You should always look to get the wickets no matter what. You have to be aggressive 99% of the time. The best defence is attack.”
As pacer, the most remarkable point about Sushant Mishra is the fact that he is very good at reading the game: he does his research so well that he knows how to work against a specific batter and changes according to the pitch. This has been the reason behind his quick growth as a bowler; slowly he is becoming the team’s go-to option in domestic matches, which he, in turn, would like to keep for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2026.
Sushant Mishra is one of the best bowlers who can be seen playing in IPL 2026 Rajasthan Royals season.
Rajasthan Royals purchased Sushant Mishra for INR 90 Lakhs in the IPL 2026 auction, and he should be given some matches during the ongoing season. One of the RR left-arm pacers in the squad, but his being a young talent, he will not occupy an overseas slot that players like Sam Curran or Nandre Burger would.
The Jharkhand pacer has also been really good and has been one of the most consistent performers in the domestic circuit lately. Sushant was the joint-leading wicket-taker in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025, with 22 scalps at a superb average of 17.18 during 11 matches.
He carried on with his good work in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, where he took 15 wickets at an average of 19.20 in six innings, including a best of 6/52. The mastery of his bowling consists of both control and variations; thus he does well in the death overs too, as he is able to control his yorkers pretty well.
The frontline bowlers in the team – Tushar Deshpande and Sandeep Sharma – are sometimes vulnerable and injury-prone, so Sushant Mishra should be giving opportunities in the middle of the tournament, if not at the very beginning. His recent form is too splendid to exclude from the XI for a lengthy period of time, especially as he also adds the left-arm variety to the attack.