Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah is back and available to play in the Mumbai Indians’ opening Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 game against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, according to head coach Mahela Jayawardene.
According to ESPNcricinfo, Jasprit Bumrah reported to the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru earlier this month for workload management.
However, MI head coach revealed that Bumrah is back with the team and ready to play against KKR during the pre-match news conference prior to the season opener.
“Bumrah is back with the squad. He’s available to play,” Mahela Jayawardene said.
Jayawardene went on to say that players, particularly bowlers, had a lot of work because of the constant cricket played before and during the 2026 T20 World Cup. He added that these difficulties were anticipated and needed to be handled carefully throughout the IPL.
“They all had to build up to the World Cup. The World Cup was quite intense as well. I mean, there was a lot of cricket played. There were a couple of Test series going as well before that. And then leading up to the T20 World Cup, there were a lot of bilateral tournaments. The workloads of some of them, I mean, most of them are bowlers who needed that bit of extra bake. And then the World Cup itself was quite high intensity, travelling, playing,” he said.
“That’s part and parcel of it. And we knew that going into this IPL, there will be those kind of situations. So we just have to manage that,” Jayawardene added.
