Bumrah came on to bowl at the nets over an hour into MI’s training session. He warmed up by bowling at the stumps without a run-up, then marked his run-up and bowled at full-tilt for about five minutes. He was also seen chatting with bowling coach Lasith Malinga between each delivery.
Bumrah was at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru recently to work on strength and conditioning. It is understood the plan for Bumrah to go to the CoE was devised by the BCCI medical team with the focus on India’s white-ball tour of England in July.
“Mitch and Jacksy both asked for a slightly extended time for personal reasons,” Jayawardene said on the eve of MI’s season opener against KKR. “And we were quite happy to go with that. But they’ll join the team pretty soon.
“I’m not sure [when they will join] but pretty soon. It’s just that we don’t want to divulge what is not fair for either party. But being honest, we feel that it’s fine with us with who we have got.”
In their absence, MI could play West Indian middle-order batter Sherfane Rutherford and Afghanistan spinner AM Ghazanfar.
While MI haven’t won their first match of an IPL season since 2012, they have a formidable record against KKR at the Wankhede, winning ten out of their 12 games over the years.
