Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
The first match of the IPL 2024 for Mumbai Indians began with their new captain Hardik Pandya starting the proceedings with the ball against his former team Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. It led to the commentary box discussions about why Jasprit Bumrah didn’t open the bowling for MI on his return to the IPL.
While the likes of Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, and Kevin Pietersen in the Star Sports commentary box speculated why Jasprit Bumrah didn’t deliver the first over, nobody was sure about the exact reason to the contrary. The best possible explanation could have been that the Mumbai Indians team management held him back for the time being for the other GT batters.
Notably, Jasprit Bumrah did finally get the ball in his hand in the fourth over of the GT innings, and he castled the opener Wriddhiman Saha with a yorker on his sixth ball to put MI on the board. This was also the first wicket for the Indian fast bowler in two seasons of the IPL after missing out on playing for MI last year due to a back injury.
After 10 overs of the Gujarat Titans innings, with their scoreboard reading 82/2, Jasprit Bumrah had bowled only one of the four overs in his spell. This clearly suggests a plan from the Mumbai Indians team management to use the 30-year-old as an enforcer of the attack, with the key responsibility of delivering a couple of overs at the death too.
Moreover, when Rohit Sharma was at the helm for Mumbai Indians for a decade or so, he had also used Jasprit Bumrah in the enforcer role for the majority of his career with the franchise. Now, Hardik Pandya, the newly appointed captain of MI, is utilising the tried and tested method of bowling him in key situations of the game, but it’s only the early stages of his leadership tenure.