IPL 2026: ‘He had a slight niggle coming back from World Cup’ - Mahela Jayawardene reveals Jasprit Bumrah fitness update

Jasprit Bumrah is enduring one of the toughest IPL campaigns of his career, having taken just four wickets in 13 matches at an economy rate of 8.37. Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene revealed that Bumrah carried fitness concerns through the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 and was therefore rested before the IPL began.

The pace spearhead had struggled with niggles ahead of the tournament, but despite the discomfort, he still finished the T20 World Cup as the joint-highest wicket-taker.

“Coming back from the World Cup as well, he had a slight niggle which he played with through the World Cup, so we gave him adequate rest after he returned. The first four or five games were a gradual build-up for him to recover fully, and you could see the pace was slightly down because of that,” Jayawardene said in the pre-match press conference as quoted by The Indian Express.

“Now he’s back to his full pace. In the last four or five games, he’s been good. But when you go through something like that, you do lose a bit of sharpness in execution because you’re managing something else alongside,” he added.

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Jayawardene said the decision to use Rohit Sharma as an Impact Substitute was purely tactical and not related to any fitness concerns. Suryakumar Yadav played a crucial role with the bat in helping Mumbai Indians qualify for the playoffs in IPL 2025. However, the right-hander has endured a mediocre IPL 2026 season so far, scoring 210 runs in 12 matches at a strike rate of 148.94. Jayawardene added that Suryakumar was going through a lean patch in terms of confidence and run-scoring form.

“According to me, according to our medical team, Rohit is 100%. After coming back from the hamstring injury, first game we were a bit cautious. Now he is playing as an Impact Sub just for the team combination when we are bowling. He is a team player; he perfectly understands it,” said Jayawardene.

“Surya is a naturally gifted player. At the moment, it’s a combination of confidence and just going through a patch. It happens in cricket,” he added.