Mumbai Indians have given opportunities to the likes of Ashwani Kumar and Satyanarayan Raju as far as Indian pace-bowling options are concerned and will have to wait for Jasprit Bumrah’s return for a week at least in the ongoing season of the IPL.
India’s Test vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah hasn’t played any competitive cricket since fifth and final Test against Australia in Sydney in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy due to a stress injury to his lower back, which has delayed his return for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL. Bumrah has already missed three matches for the five-time champions in the ongoing season of the IPL and is likely to be out of a couple more with the pacer undergoing the final phase of his rehab.
As per a report by ESPNCricinfo, Bumrah is very close to making a return from a pretty long rehab of injury that saw him not bowl in the fourth innings of the SCG Test. The report stated that Bumrah is getting near to doing the final rounds of fitness testing before he is declared fit at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence. With a long and important five-match Test series against England scheduled immediately after the IPL, Bumrah himself and the BCCI too have been very careful and have treaded the recovery path very cautiously.
Mumbai Indians have missed that edge that Bumrah provides to any team he is part of, in the ongoing IPL, especially with the variety of surfaces the teams have been subjected to. MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene had labelled Bumrah’s absence as a challenge in the pre-tournament press conference and even though the Men in Blue have been able to try out the likes of Ashwani Kumar and Satyanarayan Raju as Indian pace-bowling backups, they will hope to see him on the field as soon as possible.
With Bumrah now confirmed to miss at least the games against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), the Mumbai Indians will have to depend upon the experience of Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar and Mitchell Santner in the bowling department while hoping that Ashwani and left-arm wrist spinner Vignesh Puthur sustain the level of performances after smashing debuts.
Mumbai Indians have won one and lost two in the three matches they have played so far in the ongoing edition of the IPL and will be keen to continue the momentum after overhauling KKR with relative ease in their first home game a few days ago.
