Mahela Jayawardene, the head coach of the Mumbai Indians (MI), has voiced worries about the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, the team’s standout pacer, from the first IPL 2025 games. Since 2013, Bumrah has participated in every IPL game for the Mumbai Indians.
Jayawardene stated during a news conference on Wednesday in Mumbai that he hopes the star pacer from India would soon join the team. “The fast bowler is in ‘good spirits’ while recuperating at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (previously the National Cricket Academy) in Bengaluru,” he added.
“[Bumrah] has just recently begun to make inroads. Jayawardene stated, “We must wait and see what their [BCCI medical team] feedback is on him.” “Everything is going great right now. However, it is evidently on a daily basis. He’s feeling upbeat. It is difficult to be without him. He has been a great pro for us for many years and is among the top bowlers in the world.
“We’ll either have to wait or wait for someone else to take over. That’s my perspective. It provides us with the opportunity to experiment and observe how things turn out. We are able to do it in the early portion of the season.
Ever since joining MI in 2013, Jasprit Bumrah has taken 165 wickets in 133 games at this point. He has only missed one IPL season since he began playing, in 2023, due to a back issue.
The MI team includes the all-rounder Hardik Pandya, uncapped Ashwani Kumar, Satyanarayana Raju, Arjun Tendulkar, Raj Angad Bawa, Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar, Reece Topley, and Corbin Bosch, who replaced Lizaad Williams. The management will choose MI’s bowling lineup in Bumrah’s absence because Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar are also powerplay bowlers.
Bumrah may return to the MI squad in April, but indications indicate that he has not yet fully recovered from a stress-related back issue that has kept him out of play since January. On the second day of the final Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test in Sydney on January 4, he suffered a back injury. The Champions Trophy, which India won last month, was then denied to Bumrah. Since his surgery in March 2023, Bumrah has not experienced a back ailment till now.
MI will play their first two IPL 2025 games away. On March 23, they play the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Chennai to start their campaign. On March 29, they play the Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad. Two days later, on March 31, MI will host the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for their maiden home game. They play the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at Lucknow on April 4 and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at home on April 7 during the first week of April.
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