Jasprit Bumrah, the fast bowler for India, has made his comeback after being away from the game for about three months due to an injury. The head coach of the Mumbai Indians, Mahela Jayawardene, mentioned that Bumrah is looking good and they want to gradually get him back into the swing of things for the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Bumrah returned to action in a match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru after dealing with a back injury that kept him off the field since early January. Right from the start, he faced his India teammate Virat Kohli, who welcomed him back by hitting a six on Bumrah’s first delivery. Despite Bumrah’s return, the Mumbai Indians lost the match by 12 runs, marking their fourth loss out of five games.
After the match, Jayawardene spoke with Bumrah and said he seemed to be in great form but was understandably disappointed about the loss. He noted that Bumrah’s pace and execution looked solid. Jayawardene explained their decision to bring Bumrah into the game slowly instead of throwing him straight into the action right away. They wanted to give him a chance to adjust since he was coming back after a long break.
Jayawardene said, “Having Bumrah back gives us more options.” He acknowledged that they already had some swing bowlers and needed to make sure they handled Bumrah’s reintroduction into the team carefully. He also mentioned that being suddenly thrown into a T20 match after playing a Test match isn’t easy. However, he remained positive about Bumrah’s skills and noted that the more he plays, the better he will get.
On Sunday, Bumrah had his first chance to bowl to actual batsmen after his return, which Jayawardene said was something they had really missed in the previous games. They focused on getting him back into the right mindset and rhythm during practice. Even though Bumrah worked hard at the National Cricket Academy and cleared all fitness tests, nothing beats actual game experience.
Jayawardene commented that Bumrah had a few sessions that went well, and his lack of game-time was what they needed to work on. “The bowling you saw today was pretty good, he bowled against some tough players and had only two or three bad deliveries,” Jayawardene remarked, expressing his contentment with Bumrah’s performance. The coach is hopeful about putting all the pieces together and executing a solid game plan moving forward.
