Injury cloud over Bumrah as MI arrive

Mumbai Indians, who were chastened by Rishabh Pant’s onslaught on Sunday at the Wankhede in the IPL game against Delhi Capitals, suffered another blow through a shoulder injury to Jasprit Bumrah.

The Gujarat quick landed awkwardly on his left shoulder while fielding on his follow through, leaving him writhing on the field. The 24-year-old trudged out with the help of physio Nitin Patel and did not come out to bat.

On Monday, the first batch of Mumbai players arrived in Bengaluru for their match on Thursday against Royal Challengers Bangalore without Bumrah and it remains to be seen how soon the paceman returns to action.

While he is a doubtful starter for the RCB match, Mumbai may just rest him for their third match against Kings XI Punjab on March 30 also, considering that it is just start of the tournament. Mumbai’s fourth match is on April 3 when they host Chennai Super Kings and that gives Bumrah a 10-day break to completely recover, if needed.

A statement from the Mumbai Indians said there was no “sign of stress” to Bumrah’s injured left shoulder.

“Bumrah is in Mumbai along with team physio Patel continuing with the assessment. His recovery is on track and fortunately no sign of stress,” read the statement.

While the nature of Bumrah’s injury is said to be a minor one, a 24-hour to 48-hour monitoring is required in such cases before a call can be taken on his fitness.

Plus, it’s been learnt that before the start of IPL-12, the BCCI medical team had a video-conference with physios of all eight teams and suggested them to consider not playing the World Cup contenders -- at least at the initial stage of the season -- if the team is playing away immediately after a home match in an effort to keep the concerned players fit and fresh.

A BCCI official, meanwhile, said that scans cleared Bumrah of any major injury. “Bumrah had some shoulder scans done in the morning and BCCI was kept in the loop. His scan reports were okay. The tests that were done were all those recommended by the BCCI,” the official said, according to PTI

He also suggested that Bumrah may travel separately to Bengaluru.

Bumrah has been India’s best bowler across formats in the last one year and he is central to their World Cup plans. Hence, the injury has raised concerns all around.

Malinga to join

Meanwhile, Mumbai received some good news with the confirmation of Lasith Malinga joining the team in Bengaluru on Wednesday, a day before their match against RCB.

The development comes following Sri Lanka Cricket’s decision to relax its stance on the participation of IPL’s highest wicket-taker in a domestic ODI tournament.

SLC had made it mandatory to compete in Super Provincial one-day domestic tournament, slated from April 4 to 11, to be eligible for selection in the World Cup squad.

The condition had forced Malinga to make himself unavailable for Mumbai’s first six matches.

DH News Service