Mumbai Indians pacer Jasprit Bumrah is expected to miss the first few matches of the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League. He injured his back during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and is likely to join the MI squad in early April.
Ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah is set to miss the first few games for Mumbai Indians in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The 31-year-old suffered a back injury earlier in the year during the fifth Test against Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) and has been sidelined since. He was ruled out of the Champions Trophy and is currently recovering from the injury.
As things stand, the Ahmedabad-born cricketer is set to join the Mumbai camp in the first week of April. Ahead of that, the cricketer will have to report to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and only after the clearance of the doctors, he can feature in the IPL.
Meanwhile, Bumrah also missed the 2023 editions of the IPL, owing to a stress-related injury. He underwent surgery and returned to the India squad during the T20 series against Ireland. Since then, he has represented the team in all three formats of the game before the back injury returned. During the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, he complained about workload management but since Mohammed Shami was injured, he was forced to take an extra bit of load and that might be the cause of him being injured again.
Mumbai will play their opening game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on March 23, followed by Gujarat Titans on March 29 and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on March 31 at home. Bumrah is very likely to miss these games if not more in the month of April. Meanwhile, in Bumrah’s absence, the likes of Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar and Hardik Pandya will have to take more responsibility with the ball.
Most of the players however have joined the training camp. Mahela Jayawardene is back as head coach for the next season, while Pandya is set to continue as the captain, despite immense controversy last season.
