Not having Jasprit Bumrah for the initial stages of IPL 2025 “is a challenge” and “hopefully he can join the team soon”, Mahela Jayawardene, the Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach, said at a press interaction in Mumbai on Wednesday, adding that the pacer “is in good spirits” as he recovers at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (formerly the National Cricket Academy) in Bengaluru.
“Jasprit is at the moment with NCA. He has just started his progress,” Jayawardene said. “We have to wait and see what their [BCCI medical team] feedback is on him. At the moment, everything is going well. But obviously, it is on a day-to-day basis. He is in good spirits. Not having him is a challenge. He is one of the best bowlers in the world and he has been a fantastic pro for us for many years.
“We’ll have to wait or find an opportunity for someone else to step up. That’s how I see it. It gives us an element of trying a few things and see how things work. The early part of the season allows us to do that.”
Bumrah has played all his IPL cricket for MI, starting in 2013 and picking up 165 wickets in 133 matches over the years.
The MI squad has Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar and Reece Topley as the other frontline quicks, along with captain Hardik Pandya, the allrounder, and uncapped Indian bowlers Ashwani Kumar, Satyanarayana Raju and Arjun Tendulkar. Bumrah’s absence could force an overhaul of MI’s bowling plans, since Boult and Chahar are predominantly powerplay bowlers, leaving them short of proven T20 experience in the death.
As ESPNcricinfo reported last week, Bumrah hasn’t recovered from the stress-related back injury that has kept him out of action since January.
He suffered the injury on the second day of the final Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test in Sydney on January 4. Bumrah was subsequently ruled out of the Champions Trophy, which India won earlier this month. This is the first time Bumrah has gone down with a back injury since his surgery in March 2023.
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Bond: Transition from IPL to Tests a danger period for Bumrah
Former Mumbai Indians bowling coach talks about the importance of Bumrah’s workload management
While announcing the Champions Trophy squad in January, Ajit Agarkar, India’s chief selector, had said that Bumrah had been asked by the BCCI medical team to offload for at least five weeks (from the SCG Test). Since the Champions Trophy only started on February 19, Bumrah had been included in India’s provisional squad. He travelled to Bengaluru for fresh scans in early February, but continued to feel discomfort and was not named in the final squad.
MI’s first two IPL 2025 fixtures are away. They start their campaign in Chennai against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on March 23 and then play Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad on March 29. MI’s first home match is two days later, when they host Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on March 31. They then play two matches in first week of April: Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in Lucknow on April 4 and at home against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on April 7.