20-year-old Milly Illingworth became Mumbai Indians' (MI) latest recruit at the Women's Premier League (WPL) mega auction. Illingworth who registered her best bowling figures of 3/19 for Melbourne Renegades in the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) 2025, revealed that she went to bed after going unsold in the initial round and woke up to 'crazy couple of messages' as she was picked by two-time WPL champions.
"I saw I got passed in, and I didn't know there was (another) round, so I went to bed," Illingworth told cricket.com.au.
"And then I woke up to a crazy couple of messages, and I nearly had a heart attack when I saw it. Waking up a Mumbai Indian was very, very cool."
Illingworth was picked for her base price of Rs 10 lakh. She will have a few familiar faces in the MI camp, including Hobart Hurricanes all-rounder Nicola Carey, former Melbourne Renegades teammate Hayley Mathews and Sydney Thunder coach Lisa Keightley. She is excited to be a part of the group that features star all-rounders, especially the Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur. However, she is excited to train and share the ball with Shabnim Ismail.
"I've got one of my idols I'm playing alongside," she said. "I'm just super excited to get over there and give it a crack."
Illingworth on coming back from injury
Illingworth had replaced an injured Tayla Vlaemnick in the WBBL side. The young pacer has had her bout with a back injury as well.
"I had a stress fracture in my back, so I was working through that, and then had a couple of hiccups through preseason, but on the mend now, and had some scans and all looking positive," Illingworth said. "I'm just so ecstatic to be able to get back out in the field.
Milly Illingworth’s career statistics -
The youngster has played 28 WBBL games across three seasons so far. She has claimed 16 wickets at an average of 26.81. Her economy rate is 7.03 runs per over. Her career-best came against Melbourne Stars. She got the wicket of South Africa's veteran all-rounder Marizanne Kapp who is also a part of Delhi Capitals (DC).