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India and Mumbai Indians (MI) pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah is back, to bowling and bamboozling the batters ahead of his team's Indian Premier League (IPL) clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Monday.
Bumrah will be featured in the MI-RCB clash at Wankhede Stadium on Monday. With his presence confirmed by head coach Mahela Jayawardene ahead of the match, he has easily and well-deservedly stolen the spotlight from Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, two batting icons who will be battling it out in the match. He is set to return to the field for the first time after a 32-wicket Border Gavaskar Trophy campaign in Australia, which concluded with him walking off the field during the final Test at Sydney due to what turned out to be a stress injury which kept him out of India's white-ball series against England and ICC Champions Trophy, both won by India. MI, on their official X handle posted a slow-motion video of Bumrah clean bowling a batter in the nets. https://x.com/mipaltan/status/1908930652944072968 Speaking ahead of the match in the pre-match presser, coach Mahela Jayawardene said about Bumrah as quoted by ESPNCricinfo, "He is available, he is training today and should be available [for RCB game]. He arrived last night, he had his sessions with NCA [now Centre of Excellence] to finalise that, he has been handed over to our physios. He is bowling today, so all good." Bumrah joined the MI camp on Saturday following approval from Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) staff at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. MI has lost three of its matches so far and his return would be a massive confidence booster to MI, which fielded inexperienced, uncapped Indian players such as spinner Vignesh Puthur and pacers Ashwani Kumar and Satyanarayana Raju in his absence. Jayawardene said that since Bumrah is coming after so long, the team has to give him space and "not expect too much" from him. "Knowing Jasprit he will be up for it. We're very happy to have him in the camp, the experience he brings, that extra voice out there in the middle, chatting with (Trent) Boult, chatting with Deepak (Chahar) or any other younger bowler, giving that advice is also very valuable for us. That's what we are looking forward to from him," he added. Bumrah had been building his bowling workload at BCCI's Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. The board has been extremely cautious about his recovery, as they want to make sure he gains full fitness before return to action as his next big assignment would be the five-Test tour to England from June onwards, which will kickstart India's ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 cycle. Bumrah has represented MI in his entire IPL career, picking up 165 wickets in 133 matches since his debut in 2013. He only missed out on season for MI, in 2023, which was also due to a back injury. This injury is his latest after his back surgery in March 2023. During the last season, although MI finished at the bottom of the table, Bumrah was the franchise's leading wicket-taker and overall third, with 20 wickets in 13 matches at an average of 16.80, with best figures of 5/21. (ANI)
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