CHENNAI: Saturday evening, Mumbai Indians Once again he left Jaspreet Bumrah To try and achieve the near impossible — defending 160 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Chennai Super Kings.Bumrah bowled his heart out, dismissed the red-hot Sanju Samson, and took 1-20 in three overs. But CSK played it out, attacked from the other end, and won easily.That’s exactly what has happened during this IPL – in nine games, Bumrah has already bowled 33 overs at 8.61, while others have scored a lot more. MI want Bumrah to play defensive and attacking duties at the same time, and the idle fast bowlers who have played consistent cricket since the start of the T20 World Cup have struggled to pick up wickets.Predictably enough, he is copping some of the blame for the dismal performance of MI, who are out of contention for a playoff berth. And that brings us to the big question: “Will MI now rest him for the rest of the tournament?” MI coach Mahila Jayawardene A press conference later on Saturday did not seem to buy the idea. “We’re not out yet, are we?” Mahila turned to the media manager next to her, who nodded vigorously to let the coach know there was still life in the campaign.“It’s too early for me to say anything, we still have five more matches, anything can happen for us. We just have to finish the tournament on a positive note and see what happens. There’s still a lot of cricket to be played, I don’t think we’re out of the tournament, so I’m going to fight and I’m sure the rest of the boys will too, when Jara asked about rest.” Tournament
Perhaps one should remind the Sri Lankan legend about 2022, when MI were campaigning as badly as this one. They won just four matches and finished last, but Bumrah was made to play all 14 games. He bowled 53.2 of his available 56 overs throughout the tournament, taking 15 wickets and had an economy rate of 7.15.Brilliant figures no doubt, but what happened next turned out to be a nightmare not just for Bumrah but for the Indian team. Bowling flat out in meaningless games, Bumrah suffered a stress fracture in his back, was out of action for 11 months and India lost the T20 World Cup semi-final to England by 10 wickets without his spearhead.
Bumrah suffered a recurrence of his back injury in 2025 and since his comeback, the 32-year-old Bumrah has made workload management a priority. This led to India’s all-format master being ruled out of the two crucial Tests against England last year when the series was on the line.This has not gone down well with everyone running Indian cricket these days and there are already talks that the management wants him to play all the nine World Test Championship matches that are in India’s remaining 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, is bound to have some time in the format.It is a lot of cricket this cycle and Bumrah needs adequate rest to deliver across all formats, with his body not breaking down. For all practical purposes, the champions should rest from Monday when MI play LSG until the end of the IPL, but are Mumbai Indians listening?
