India's fast-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has not played a single competitive game since September 2022 when he played a T20I against Australia. Due to back injury, Bumrah was ruled out of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023, Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 and World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final. Now, few days ahead of WTC final against Australia, Bumrah has provided an injury update as he wrote “Hello friend, we meet again’ on Instagram with a photo of his bowling shoes.
Earlier this month, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) provided a medical update on Bumrah along with Shreyas Iyer in a press release. It mentioned that Bumrah had underwent successful back surgery in New Zealand and will start his rehabilitation in six weeks.
"Jasprit Bumrah underwent surgery in New Zealand on his lower back, which was successful and he remains pain-free. The fast bowler was advised by the specialist to start his rehab six weeks after the surgery and accordingly, Mr Bumrah has commenced his rehab management at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru from Friday," BCCI said in a press release.
It seems that Bumrah has started his rehabilitation as per doctor’s advice. There is a big question mark on Bumrah’s availability in the ODI World Cup which India will host later this year. Meanwhile, Jaydev Unadkat and Umesh Yadav who are part of WTC final Test squad are yet to be announced fully fit for the mega event that will begin on June 7 at the Oval.
The update comes a day after Mumbai Indians’ (MI) exit from Indian Premier League (IPL). The Rohit Sharma-led side suffered a massive 62-run loss as Shubman Gill’s third century of the season helped Gujarat Titans (GT) post a massive total of 233/3 on the board at their homeground Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium, Ahmedabad.
In IPL 2023, MI became the first team to concede four totals above 200 on the trot as they lacked their death overs speciallist Bumrah and Jofra Archer who got injured midway.
"You can look at Bumrah not being available, Jofra not being available, they are quality players. If you are losing out on your quality players, yes it's going to leave a hole. Not to put any blame on anyone, those things happen in sports, injuries happen in sports and you've got to deal with it," MI head coach Mark Boucher had told the reporters in the post-match press conference.
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