India's pace bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah averages 109.66 in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. While there are several things that have gone wrong for Mumbai Indians (MI) this season, Bumrah's form is concerning as he has managed just three wickets in 10 games, returning wicketless in seven of them. He hasn't been potent at the death or able to make early inroads for the five-time IPL champions. It was a similar story in the clash against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on May 4 as he remained wicketless and conceded 45 runs from four overs. Despite MI's win over LSG in a high-scoring game, former India women's team batter Veda Krishnamurthy wants vice-captain Suryakumar Yadav or former skipper Rohit Sharma to ask Bumrah if he wants to take a break for a game or two.
"We are in that space that the management, or coach or even captain - Surya[kumar Yadav] is pretty close to him, he is the vice-captain of the squad - and Rohit [Sharma] is around, they can probably honestly sit and have a chat," Veda said on ESPNcricinfo's TimeOut show.
"Ask him: 'are you feeling 100% from within'; 'do you want to take a break for a game or so'. So that he comes back fresh. That is something you can probably ask him and expect him to answer you honestly.
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"And if he does that, I think if he says 'no, I am good to go, I will play', you will probably see a better version of him, because he will try to push even more harder… an honest conversation is something [that's] just, just to have that reassurance saying that 'I need a break' or 'I can go ahead and play'. I think that is something you can probably ask and figure out."
Deceiving Markram, Himmat will give him confidence
In the home clash against LSG, he went for 31 runs in first two overs. He was brought back into the attack and got Himmat Singh off a no ball. In total, he bowled three no balls in the match. However, he conceded just 14 runs in two overs with the old ball. Veda believes that being economical in the last two overs will give him confidence.
"I felt that despite going for a lot of runs against Mitchell Marsh [in the powerplay] - he had no-balls, yes, he did not pick up a wicket - I liked how he came back and bowled those two overs in the death," Veda said.
"He didn't give much [away] in those two overs. He looked brilliant; the dipping yorker that we talked about, the slower one where he was deceiving Markram and Himmat Singh consistently, I think that should give [him] a lot of confidence."
MI win, to face RCB next week
MI chased down 229 with eight balls to spare and kept their slim chances of making it to playoffs alive. Their next match is against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on May 10. It may work as a welcome break for Bumrah and other MI bowlers who haven't been at their best this season.