Jasprit Bumrah is available for selection for Mumbai Indians' game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Monday, head coach Mahela Jayawardene has confirmed.
"He's available, he's training today, and should be available [for the RCB game]," Jayawardene said ahead of MI's net session at the Wankhede Stadium. "He arrived last night, he had his sessions with NCA [National Cricket Academy, now Centre of Excellence] to finalise that, he's been handed over to our physios. He's bowling today, so all good."
Bumrah was given a warm welcome at the MI team huddle, with batting coach Kieron Pollard hoisting him into the air with the words, "Welcome, Mufasa." MI have lost three of their first four matches of IPL 2025 and his return is a huge boost to a bowling attack that had included several inexperienced Indian bowlers such as Vignesh Puthur, Ashwani Kumar and Satyanarayana Raju. Bumrah was MI's leading wicket-taker in IPL 2024 with 20 scalps, the third most in the season.
Bumrah was among the first batch of bowlers in the nets on Sunday and bowled alongside Trent Boult, Mitchell Santner and Karn Sharma, with bowling coach Lasith Malinga keeping a close watch. He ran in at full tilt and bowled at brisk speeds to MI's openers Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton. Bumrah operated primarily from over the wicket to Rohit and went around the stumps to the left-hander Rickelton. He found Rohit's outside edge with a length ball that would have carried to slip, and followed up with a jog towards the batter. Rohit shouldered arms to the next delivery.
After a 30-minute stint in the nets, Bumrah walked away. He returned an hour later to have a word with MI's bowling coach Paras Mhambrey and bowl at Santner, Corbin Bosch and Bevon Jacobs. He bowled a few deliveries off a short run-up before steaming in again - hitting good lengths and bowling a few yorkers.
"Boom's coming back from a pretty decent layoff, so we need to give him that space," Jayawardene had said. "Not expect too much. Knowing Jasprit he will be up for it. We're very happy to have him in the camp, the experience he brings, that extra voice out there in the middle, chatting with Boulty [Trent Boult], chatting with Deepak [Chahar] or any other younger bowler, giving that advice is also very valuable for us. That's what we're looking forward to from him."
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Bumrah joined the MI squad on Saturday, after getting clearance from the BCCI's medical staff at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. He has not played competitive cricket since the Sydney Test in the first week of January, when he suffered a stress reaction in the back, and missed India's home bilateral series against England and the Champions Trophy during his recovery.
He has been building his bowling workload up in recent weeks at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence. He's been cautious about his recovery, and wants to ensure he is fully fit before returning to action, keeping in mind India's five-Test series in England starting on June 28.
Bumrah has played all his IPL cricket for MI, starting in 2013 and picking up 165 wickets in 133 matches over the years. The only IPL season he has missed since was in 2023, when he had a back injury. This latest injury is his first back injury since he had back surgery in March 2023.