IPL 2025: Jasprit Bumrah likely to miss the initial matches for Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indiansrsquo star pacer Jasprit Bumrah is likely to miss the initial rounds of the Indian Premier League IPL 2025 as he is still recovering from the lower back injury that has kept him out of action since JanuaryBumrah suffered the injury during the second day of the fifth Test against Australia at Sydney and did not bowl in Australiarsquos second innings where they chased down 162 successfully to emerge victoriousBumrah who had taken 32 wickets from five matches in that series has been sidelined ever since and has also missed Indiarsquos successful Champions Trophy campaign He was named in Indiarsquos provisional squad for the ICC showpiece but could not attain the optimum fitness level in timeldquoHis recuperation is going well But at this stage it is better to give him some more time to return to peak fitness considering Indiarsquos Test series against England in Junerdquo a source close to the development told PTI The IPL 2025 is scheduled to end on May 25Also ReadIN PHOTOS Splash smear celebrate Cricketers drench themselves in Holi coloursNo time frame for return yetIt has also been learnt that the physios at the BCCI Centre of Excellence have not set a specific time frame for him to return to action even though Bumrah has been steadily increasing his workload at nets and match simulationsEarlier chief selector Ajit Agarkar said that Bumrah had been advised five weeks of complete lsquooffloadingrsquo until the last week of January to reduce the stress on his injured backIt was a mandatory step because Bumrah had suffered a similar injury in 2023 and had undergone surgery in March that year which cost him considerable match time The possible unavailability of Bumrah is a huge blow to Mumbai Indians in their quest to regain the IPL title after finishing 10th in the points table in IPL 2024MI need others to deliverIn Burmahrsquos absence the Hardik Pandyaled side will have to rely massively on pacers Trent Boult Corbin Bosch and Deepak Chahar to deliver the goods Hardik will also have to shoulder more bowling responsibilities in the absence of the 30yearoldWhile swing bowlers Boult and Chahar may be able to make up for Bumrahrsquos absence in the powerplay itrsquoll be interesting to see whom the MI thinktank opt to use at the death in order to fill the Bumrahshaped voidThe news is also a dampener for MI fans who were itching to watch the BumrahBoult duo reunite after the NZ pacer was brought back at the auction having spent the last three seasons at Rajasthan RoyalsThe Mumbai outfit will begin their campaign against Chennai Super Kings on March 23 at Chennai before travelling to Ahmedabad to face Gujarat Titans on March 29 The fivetime champions will then return home for a clash against Kolkata Knight Riders on March 31They will take on Lucknow Super Giants on April 4 and Royal Challengers Bengaluru on April 7 and as things stand Bumrah is unlikely to feature in any of those gamesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever