Ahmedabad : Jasprit Bumrah is a once-in-a-generation bowler. But even he struggled to pick up a wicket in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). His wicket drought extended to the previous season as well, and he struck for the first time in seven IPL matches on Monday against the Gujarat Titans. He took his first IPL wicket after a staggering 146 balls and curiously, also ended a stunning wait of 276 T20 matches.
Bumrah opened the bowling attack for the five-time champions in the defence of 199 runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad and stunned the hosts with a first-ball wicket, dismissing in-form opener Sai Sudharsan. For the first time in his 276-match T20 career, Bumrah took a wicket off the first ball of the innings. Interestingly, Jofra Archer of Rajasthan Royals has already achieved this feat three times only in this IPL season in six matches.
Having said that, Bumrah is not at fault in this regard as he opened the bowling in the shortest format of the game only for the 16th time in his career. In fact, it was only the sixth time in the IPL that he took the new ball and got his team off to a wonderful start. Overall, the legendary bowler’s figures after opening the bowling are extremely great as he has picked 23 wickets in 16 innings at a brilliant economy of 5.91, much better than his career economy of 6.93.
This certainly raises the question if Jasprit Bumrah should open the bowling attack in the T20 format frequently, at least for the Mumbai Indians in the ongoing season of IPL. Also, he has gone wicketless only twice in 16 innings after opening the bowling and it last happened back in 2014.
MI end four-match losing streak
As far as the match is concerned, the Mumbai Indians ended their four-match losing streak in IPL 2026 to finally register their second win. Also, the massive 99-run win ensured they jumped from the bottom of the points table to seventh place.
