Jasprit Bumrah is set to miss the first few
IPL 2025 matches for Mumbai Indians (MI) as he continues to recover from the back injury that has kept him out of action since January. It has been learnt that Bumrah is expected to join the squad by early April – MI have three games scheduled in March – subject to clearance from the medical team at BCCI’s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.
Bumrah has been recuperating from the stress-related injury in his lower back, which he suffered on the second day of the
final Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test in Sydney on January 4. Bumrah was subsequently
ruled out of the Champions Trophy, which India won earlier this month. This is the first time Bumrah has gone down with a back injury since undergoing surgery in March 2023.
While announcing the squad for Champions Trophy in January, Ajit Agarkar, India’s chief selector, had said that Bumrah had been asked by the BCCI medical team to offload for at least five weeks (from the SCG Test). Since the Champions Trophy only started on February 19, Bumrah had been included in
India’s provisional squad. He travelled to Bengaluru for fresh scans in early February, but continued to feel discomfort and was not named in the final squad.
It could not be confirmed exactly how many matches Bumrah would miss and if there was a definite date of return.
MI’s first two IPL 2025 fixtures are away: after starting their campaign in Chennai against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on March 23, they play Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad on March 29. MI’s first home match is two days later, when they host Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on March 31. They then play two matches in first week of April: Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in Lucknow on April 4 and at home against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on April 7.
His unique action has made Bumrah susceptible to back issues, forcing the BCCI medical team, the selectors, and the team think tank to balance his workload and ensure that he is given optimal rest between series/tournaments.
Recently, former New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond, who has worked with Bumrah in the past at MI in his capacity as the team’s bowling coach, had warned that
if Bumrah suffers another back injury in the spot where he had had the surgery, it could be a “career ender”.
Bond, who had suffered chronic back issues during his playing career, said that the “danger” zone for fast bowlers was when they transitioned too quickly from T20 to Test cricket, and that was his primary concern for Bumrah, too, seeing that India are scheduled to travel to England in June to play a five-Test series barely a month after the IPL ends on May 25.
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