Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene has explained why Jasprit Bumrah has struggled in IPL 2026. Bumrah has not been at his best in the ongoing season, managing just four wickets from 13 matches. With their lead pacer unable to hit top form, Mumbai Indians have endured a difficult campaign and have already been knocked out of the tournament.
The five-time champions will play for pride when they face Rajasthan Royals on May 22 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Jayawardene said Bumrah entered the IPL carrying a slight niggle from the T20 World Cup and needed time to regain rhythm after returning from injury.
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“Yeah, I think it’s a combination of a few things. Coming back from the World Cup as well, he had a slight niggle which he played with through the tournament, so we gave him adequate rest after he returned. The first four or five games were a gradual build-up for him to recover fully, and you could see the pace was slightly down because of that,” Jayawardene said in the pre-match press conference.
“Now he’s back to his full pace. In the last four or five games, he’s been good. But when you go through something like that, you do lose a bit of sharpness in execution because you’re managing something else alongside,” Jayawardene said.
Interestingly, while Bumrah has not taken many wickets, he still has the best economy rate among Mumbai Indians bowlers, with an economy of 8.36. Jayawardene added that opposition batters have not been overly aggressive against him, and MI bowlers from the other end have also struggled to build consistent pressure.
“Health-wise, he’s 100 percent. Unfortunately, the season is over for us. I also think teams haven’t taken too many risks against him in certain situations, they’ve played him out because we haven’t been able to create enough pressure around him. The bowlers haven’t been able to build that pressure the way we needed to, so tactically teams have approached him differently.
“So I can’t say there’s just one reason. It’s been a combination of factors, but I wouldn’t worry about Booms. He’s in good spirits and will come back strong,” Jayawardene added.
Mumbai Indians are currently placed ninth in the table with eight points and a net run rate of -0.510, having won four of their 13 matches.
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Source: India Today
