MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene, on Friday, revealed that ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah is still recuperating from his back injury at the BCCI Centre of Excellence, and is not expected to join the ranks of MI in IPL 2025 anytime soon.
Bumrah last played a competitive match on January 5, 2025, for India against Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground. He is out of action currently owing to a lower back injury he picked up during the Border-Gavaskar Series.
It was earlier reported that Bumrah will join the MI set-up in the coming weeks after getting fitness clearance from NCA, where he is currently undergoing rehabilitation.
But, Jayawardene shushed all rumours yet again, stating that no timelines had been provided on Bumrah’s progress yet, and so he shall remain unavailable for the time being.
“Everyone is available except for Bumrah. Like I said in my last interview as well, it’s on a daily basis that he’s going through his programme.
“So far, everything seems okay. But there were no timelines given by NCA, so we’ll wait on that,” he added.
In Bumrah’s absence, Deepak Chahar and Trent Boult are leading MI’s pace attack, while New Zealand’s white-ball captain Mitchell Santner, along with England all-rounder Will Jacks, are the primary spinners-in-charge.
“We’ve got a very experienced bowling attack and they don’t think like that. I think we have to segregate the venues. I think we’ve got enough experience to understand how it works. Like I said, each venue, and each opposition throws us different challenges and that’s something that we will focus on.
