Mumbai Indians ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah has had arguably the most difficult IPL campaign of his career, having taken a mere four wickets in 13 matches at an economy rate of 8.37.
Beyond the lacklustre showing, the speedster has had niggles, which head coach Mahela Jayawardene revealed he carried through the T20 World Cup and hence was given rest before the IPL began.
“Coming back from the World Cup as well, he had a slight niggle which he played with through the World Cup, so we gave him adequate rest after he returned. The first four or five games were a gradual build-up for him to recover fully, and you could see the pace was slightly down because of that,” Jayawardene said in the pre-match press conference.
“Now he’s back to his full pace. In the last four or five games, he’s been good. But when you go through something like that, you do lose a bit of sharpness in execution because you’re managing something else alongside,” he added.
The former Sri Lankan captain also said that the decision to play Rohit Sharma as an impact sub was a tactical call and there were no fitness concerns about him.
“According to me, according to our medical team, Rohit is 100%. After coming back from the hamstring injury, first game we were a bit cautious. Now he is playing as an Impact Sub just for the team combination when we are bowling. He is a team player; he perfectly understands it,” he said.
Suryakumar Yadav’s contribution with the bat went a long way in MI qualifying for the playoffs in IPL 2025. The right-hander has had a mediocre IPL 2026, with 210 runs in 12 matches at a strike rate of 148.94, and Jayawardene said that he was going through a lean run, in terms of confidence and run scoring.
“Surya is a naturally gifted player. At the moment, it’s a combination of confidence and just going through a patch. It happens in cricket,” he said.
