Mahela Jayawardene, the head coach of the Mumbai Indians (MI), stated during a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday that it "is a challenge" to not have Jasprit Bumrah for the first five IPL 2025 games and that "hopefully he can join the team soon." The fast bowler "is in good spirits" while recuperating at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence (previously the National Cricket Academy) in Bengaluru, Jayawardene added.
Bumrah has only recently begun to make improvements. Jayawardene stated, "We have to wait and see what their [BCCI medical team] feedback is on him." "Everything is going great right now. However, it is evidently on a daily basis. He's feeling upbeat. It is difficult to be without him. He has been a great pro for us for many years and is among the top bowlers in the world.
We'll either have to wait or wait for someone else to take over. That's my perspective. It provides us with the opportunity to experiment and observe how things turn out. We can do it in the early part of the season.
Beginning in 2013, Bumrah has played all of his IPL cricket for MI, taking 165 wickets in 133 games throughout that time. He has only missed one IPL season since he began playing, in 2023, due to a back issue.
Along with captain Hardik Pandya, the all-rounder, Ashwani Kumar, Satyanarayana Raju, Arjun Tendulkar, Raj Angad Bawa, and the uncapped Ashwani Kumar, the MI team also has Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar, Reece Topley, and Corbin Bosch (who replaced Lizaad Williams) as the other frontline quicks. MI's bowling strategy may need to be reevaluated in light of Bumrah's unavailability because Boult and Chahar are primarily powerplay bowlers and lack proven T20 expertise in the closing stages.
Bumrah hasn't fully recovered from the stress-related back issue that has prevented him from playing since January, as Khelojito revealed last week. He may return to the MI squad in early April.
On January 4, on the second day of the last Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test in Sydney, he sustained the injury. India won the Champions Trophy earlier this month, but Bumrah was later disqualified. After undergoing surgery in March 2023, this is the first time Bumrah has suffered a back problem.
India's top selector, Ajit Agarkar, stated that Bumrah had been instructed by the BCCI medical team to take a minimum of five weeks off from the SCG Test when he announced the Champions Trophy squad in January. As the Champions Trophy didn't begin until February 19, Bumrah was part of India's reserve team. In early February, he went to Bengaluru for more scans, but he was not included in the final team because he was still uncomfortable.
MI's first two 2025 IPL games are away games. They meet the Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad on March 29 after beginning their campaign against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Chennai on March 23. Two days later, on March 31, MI will play their maiden home game against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Then, in the first week of April, they play two games: one at home against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on April 7 and one against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at Lucknow on April 4.