IPL 2027: Steffan Jones joins Mumbai Indians as bowling consultant

Steffan Jones (Twitter Photo) NEW DELHI: Steffan Jones, former high-performance coach at Rajasthan Royals (RR), will join Mumbai Indians (MI) as a bowling consultant for their development programme, TimesofIndia.com has learnt.The 52-year-old will work with MI’s development team alongside Zubin Bharucha, who joined the five-time champions as performance director earlier this year.Jones, who also served as the fast bowling coach of Rajasthan Royals during the 2019 edition of the IPL, was later brought back by the franchise as the high-performance fast bowling coach ahead of the 2022 IPL.They also learned that Bharucha and Jones have a specific role: to work with the Indian players during the ongoing domestic season.Jones, who played first-class cricket on the English county circuit between 1997 and 2011, recently worked with India all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy. The Welshman helped the youngster improve his bowling speed. Reddy, who used to score in the mid-120s, is now consistently tracking the mid-130s.Earlier on Saturday, MI roped in Kieron Pollard as their head coach, replacing Mahela Jayawardene. The franchise is likely to take on the big challenge of captaincy and a move on the Hardik Pandya trade is expected in the coming weeks.