Jasprit Bumrah missed the entire IPL 2023 due to a fitness concern. A stress fracture for which he underwent surgery last year kept him away from cricket for a significant period.
The injury though raised doubts over whether Bumrah will be his old self but he dismissed those concerns swiftly with a series of excellent performances spread across Asia Cup, ODI World Cup, South Africa tour and the recent Test series against England at home.
On Sunday, Bumrah made a resounding IPL return for Mumbai Indians with a three-wicket haul that included a trademark inswinging delivery to clean up Gujarat Titans opener Wriddhiman Saha in the Powerplay.
England legend Stuart Broad was quite impressed with how Bumrah operated with the new ball.
“That’s what he does, it’s just his trademark. He will beat you with the pace. He will beat you with his trajectory. It’s an interesting one with the new ball, I feel like he asked to come on and get the first wicket of the day and set the tone,” Broad said on Star Sports.
“But whatever he is going to use he is going to be successful because of so much skill and so much talent. And it’s just up to Hardik and team and management to figure out exactly where that will work,” he added.
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Bumrah later made impact in the death overs too taking the scalps of dangerman David Miller and the well-set B Sai Sudharsan in the same over to finish with bowling figures of 3/14 from four overs.
Australia batting star Steve Smith is happy to see Bumrah back to doing what he does best after missing the last season of IPL .
“He (Bumrah) is such a good bowler. We know that he has been such an unbelievable bowler for so many years. It’s great to see him back after obviously missing last year. He created a good impact in the very first game. He bowled beautifully: 3 for 14, on what looked like a pretty good wicket. I think playing here, it doesn’t give you much but try to get to wickets and that’s the best place to be,” Smith said.
Despite Bumrah’s solid effort with the ball, MI suffered a close six-run defeat at the hands of GT.
Chasing 169, MI slipped from a strong position to finish with 162/9.
“Games have become so exciting in these final overs. I must admit when Hardik Pandya hit that first ball of the last over for six, I thought they (MI) are going to win this and it is going to be a fairy tale story,” Broad said.
“But as Ravi said, (the trend of) Mumbai Indians not winning the first game (of a season), I don’t think it’s done too much harm, I think they have lots of positive signs for Mumbai Indians in this game but it’s extremely disappointing that they threw away their position because we know how things are to come by and the advantage of the home team in this stage of the IPL,” he added.
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