Jasprit Bumrah’s underwhelming run in the Indian Premier League 2026 season continued to draw attention after another wicketless outing in Mumbai Indians’ clash against Lucknow Super Giants at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday. The premier pacer conceded 45 runs without picking up a wicket, marking the seventh instance this season where he has gone wicketless.
His performance has now triggered conversations around workload management and utilisation, with experts suggesting that the franchise may need to reassess their approach.
Veda Krishnamurthy recommended an open conversation between the team management and Bumrah regarding his physical and mental condition after the game against LSG.
“We are in that space that the management, or coach or even captain – Surya[kumar Yadav] is pretty close to him, he is the vice-captain of the squad – and Rohit [Sharma] is around, they can probably honestly sit and have a chat. Ask him: ‘are you feeling 100% from within’; ‘do you want to take a break for a game or so’. So that he comes back fresh. That is something you can probably ask him and expect him to answer you honestly,” said Veda Krishnamurthy on ESPNcricinfo.
Former India cricketer Sanjay Bangar had somewhat similar words, stating that MI might have to take a difficult call depending on their priorities for the remainder of the season.
“It also boils down to what the coach and the management is thinking. I mean, from a coaching perspective or from a management perspective, if MI are okay to play without Bumrah, if MI are okay to maybe finish the season in the lower ranks, so to say, as far as the point stable is concerned, if that is the case, then I think Bumrah may probably in all likelihood take that to call of, you know, not playing the rest of the games,” Bangar said.
In the match against LSG, Bumrah was introduced as early as the second over and conceded 10 runs. His next over, however, proved expensive as he went for 21 runs. Despite the early setback, Bumrah showed signs of recovery in the latter stages of the innings, as he returned to bowl the 14th and 19th overs, where he conceded just seven runs each.
Bangar, meanwhile, pointed out that Bumrah’s struggles were not due to lack of effort but possibly due to mishandling his bowling quota by the MI captains and the management.
“He is trying very, very hard and it’s very unlike Bumrah to go for 31 in the first two overs. An average pace of 134 with the fastest being 141 [in the game]. So he is trying his heart out – you can see it in his body language that he is hurting – but I just feel that he is not being used correctly. He was bowled in the second over, then again in the fourth over,” he concluded.
Despite that, Mumbai Indians emerged victorious against LSG at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai as they chased down 229 with ease. Ryan Rickelton was named Player of the Match for his splendid knock.
