Jasprit Bumrah (BCCI Photo) CHENNAI: On Saturday night, Mumbai Indians once again left it to Jasprit Bumrah to try and achieve the near-impossible – defending 160 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium against Chennai Super Kings.Bumrah played his heart out, dismissing a red-hot Sanju Samson and taking 1-20 in three overs. But CSK played him, attacked from the other side and won easily.That’s been the case this IPL too – in nine games, Bumrah has already bowled 33 overs at a rate of 8.61 when others have bled much more profusely. MI want Bumrah to handle defensive and attacking duties at the same time and the tired paceman, who has been playing non-stop cricket since the start of the T20 World Cup, is struggling to deliver wickets.Predictably, he bears some of the blame for MI’s dismal performance, who are almost out of playoff contention. And that brings us to the important question: “Will MI now give him a break for the rest of the tournament?” MI coach Mahela Jayawardene didn’t seem to buy the idea at a press conference after Saturday’s mauling. “We’re not out yet, are we?” Mahela turned to the accompanying media manager, who nodded vigorously to let the coach know there was still life left in the campaign.“It’s too early to say anything, we’ve got five games left, anything can happen to us. We just need to finish the tournament on a positive note and see what happens. There’s a lot more cricket to be played, I don’t think we’re out of the tournament mathematically, so I’m going to fight and I’m sure the other guys will do the same when asked about resting the Jayrah tournament.” Perhaps someone should remind the Sri Lankan legend of 2022 when MI suffered a campaign as miserable as this one. They won only four games and finished last, but Bumrah was forced to play all 14 games. In the entire tournament, he bowled 53.2 overs of his available 56, took 15 wickets and had an economy rate of 7.15.Brilliant numbers no doubt, but what happened next was a nightmare not only for Bumrah but also for the Indian team. Bumrah suffered a broken back while bowling inconsequential games, was out for 11 months and India lost the T20 World Cup semi-final to England by 10 wickets without his spearhead.
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Munaf Patel questions the appointment of Morne Morkel, Sitanshu KotakBumrah had a recurrence of his back injury in 2025 and since his return, the 32-year-old has put a lot of emphasis on workload management. This led to India’s all-format champions dropping out of two crucial Tests against England last year when the series was on the line.That has not gone down well with everyone running Indian cricket these days and there are already talks of the management wanting him to play all nine World Test Championship matches India have in the rest of the cycle. The ODI World Cup is also in South Africa in October 2027 and Bumrah, who has not played a single 50-over game since the 2023 World Cup final, needs to get some game time in the format.That is a lot of cricket in this cycle and Bumrah needs adequate rest to play in all formats without his body collapsing. For all practical purposes, the champion should be rested from Monday when MI play LSG until the end of the IPL, but are Mumbai Indians listening?
