Bumrah joins Mumbai Indians squad ahead of home game against RCB

April 6 (ESPNcricinfo): In a major boost for the struggling Mumbai Indians (MI), Jasprit Bumrah has linked up with the squad ahead of their IPL 2025 game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at home on Monday.

It is understood that Bumrah joined MI on Saturday, after getting clearance from the BCCI's medical staff at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, where he had been doing his rehab since January following a stress-related discomfort in his lower back. He will now coordinate with the MI support staff, led by Mahela Jayawardene, to work out his comeback schedule.

A critical part of the plan for Bumrah's return originally included him playing a practice match or two to test his fitness. It could not be confirmed whether he managed to do it at the Centre of Excellence or will do it with MI.

The last update about Bumrah was on April 4, when it was reported that he would miss the game against RCB at the very least before returning to action.

Bumrah had been building his bowling workload in recent weeks at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru and, as of April 4, was understood to be close to taking the final round of fitness tests.

Bumrah has been cautious about his recovery and wants to ensure he is totally fit before returning to action. This is keeping in mind India's five-Test series in England, starting on June 28.

MI have so far played four games in IPL 2025, winning one and losing three, and have handed debuts to Satyanarayana Raju, Vignesh Puthur and Ashwani Kumar in Bumrah's absence, with Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar leading the attack and captain Hardik Pandya the other seam-bowling option in the line-up.

Bumrah has played all his IPL cricket for MI, starting in 2013 and picking up 165 wickets in 133 matches over the years. The only IPL season he missed since he started playing was in 2023, when he had a back injury.

He suffered the latest injury during the final Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test in Sydney on January 4. Bumrah was subsequently ruled out of the Champions Trophy, which India won last month. This is the first time Bumrah has gone down with a back injury since his surgery in March 2023.