Jasprit Bumrah returns to cricket with strong performance for Mumbai Indians

• How Did Bumrah Do?
• The Road Back For Bumrah

In his return, he managed figures of 0 for 29 in his four overs for Mumbai in a high-scoring game where Royal Challengers Bangalore scored 221 for 5.

How Did Bumrah Do?

Bumrah bowled with precision and accuracy as you would expect from him after missing so many weeks after a back injury he sustained while bowling in the series against Australia earlier in the year.

Across both teams, Bumrah was the most economical bowler at the Wankhede Stadium in a match where more than 400 runs were scored. He bowled one over in the Powerplay, one in the middle overs and then came back to bowl two in the death overs.

"I just spoke to him after the game and he looks in good nick," coach Mahela Jayawardene said. "He's disappointed [at losing as well. He wanted a win when he came back. But other than that, he looks fine. I think the pace was up, the execution was good."

"I think we got two swing bowlers, we need to give them that opportunity first up," Jayawardene said "Boom's coming back from a three-month layoff as well. So we just wanted to ease him into the competition, but he bowled well and he controlled things really well. The more he starts playing, [getting] game time, he'll get into it.”

The Road Back For Bumrah

Bumrah bowled more than 50 overs in a Test match in Melbourne on Boxing Day against Australia. In the subsequent match, in the New Year’s Test in Sydney, Bumrah was unable to take the field after a few overs due to his back injury flaring up.

Since then, Bumrah has missed cricket for the last three months, including the entirety of the Champions Trophy in Dubai. He missed the first few games for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2025 before his return against RCB.

"Obviously, NCA has a programme that they have to go through, do all the fitness tests and make sure that he is in good shape," Jayawardene said. "That applies to all Indian contracted players. Once he went through that, he had five-six good sessions as well, everything was cleared. The only thing he was lacking was game time. He hadn't played actively.