Jasprit Bumrah clearly isn’t fully fit, so why is he still playing?

Naturally, this raises eyebrows. Wickets are certainly not the be-all and end-all of T20 bowling, but for a man who gets batters out for fun in longer formats, the slam-bang nature of the shortest format should have, at least by sheer luck, yielded a few poles by now.

Of course, five wicketless games is still in the realm of bad luck, but is not something Bumrah himself has experienced before; four games in a row once, back in 2014, was his longest barren run until this point.

More worrying than the returns may be the fact that he is on the pitch at all.

India have, by and large, rightly been extremely judicious when it comes to Bumrah’s workload in international contests. He is sometimes rested during live series – in the English summer of 2025, he sat out the second and fifth Tests, neither of which was a dead rubber.

Bumrah played seven T20Is in two months in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup, where he played another seven T20Is in under a month; 14 games and 13 trips in 12 weeks for a fast bowler that has a taxing action, has had his fair share of injury troubles and is in his early thirties.

Three weeks later, he was set to begin a two-month IPL campaign which contained another 14 games.

Is Bumrah's downturn in speeds a concern?

Prior to the start of the season, Bumrah visited the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru before joining the Mumbai Indians squad. Fears of an injury were allayed when ESPNCricinfo reported that he had checked in to work on a strength and conditioning plan devised with a view towards keeping him fit for India’s white-ball tour of England that follows the IPL.

Be that as it may, there was little doubt that he looked ginger, almost overly careful as he turned out in his first game of the campaign against Kolkata Knight Riders. Raw pace is not Bumrah’s USP, and speed gun-watching can be a misleading endeavour, but even so: across his first three matches, he bowled just one delivery in excess of 140 kmph. In the second, against Delhi Capitals, the quickest ball clocked 132.

In each of the last three seasons, at least 35 per cent of Bumrah’s deliveries measured 140 kmph or quicker. This year, after he ramped up those speeds in the fourth game against RCB, that is 9.9 per cent so far.

As per CricViz records, he has also bowled a higher proportion of pace-off deliveries this year than any other this decade (by a long, long way).

Jasprit Bumrah: Proportion of slower balls in the IPL

This on its own may have just been tactical; after all, he has been using the pace-off variation more and more over the last four seasons.

But after Mumbai’s most recent game, head coach Mahela Jayawardene did admit, “Initially because he had a slight niggle which came from the World Cup, we wanted to build him up.

“Over the last few games, his speeds have gone up. We’ve looked at all that, so he’s very comfortable. Sometimes, you need a bit of luck as well. Once he starts taking wickets, he might not be able to stop him doing that.”

Why is Bumrah still playing?

It’s said that fast bowlers are never truly fully fit, always playing with a pull here or a twinge there. That, in all likelihood, would be the case for Bumrah as well – special mention of a “niggle” is likely to be something more.

Wickets aside, Bumrah has conceded at 8.63 runs an over this season. The rest of the IPL’s seamers are going at 10.02, and MI’s other quicks are going at 12.54.

The toothlessness of the rest of the attack has also contributed, in part, to his barren spell. “The opposition know they don’t need to take too much risk against Bumrah,” Jayawardene said. “They are batting well. As a [bowling] unit, we’ve lacked that penetration on different surfaces and that’s something that we need to work [on].”

It is no secret why Mumbai Indians could be willing to push the boundaries a bit more with Bumrah’s fitness – even with a niggle, he is their best bowler.

One has to question whether this is the best outcome for the Indian team. As a privately-owned franchise, MI have no real obligation to worry about his India prospects, and whether an IPL team should be concerned about the national team's welfare is up for debate.

But having largely wrapped him in the proverbial cotton wool, the BCCI would be more inclined to easing his workload. The competing interest is the participation of a bonafide star in their incredibly profitable tournament.

The biggest national boards still hold primacy in today’s cricketing landscape. This is recognised in part by the ICC, whose regulations on player release from domestic events state, “On the basis that participation in any form of International Cricket shall always take priority over participation in any other form of cricket, the release of players who want to play in ICC Events and/or in International Matches for the National Representative Team of a Full Member shall be mandatory.”

This very IPL season has seen Cricket Australia in particular take the conservative approach with their fast bowlers – Mitchell Starc has not yet arrived at the IPL as he is in rehab, Pat Cummins flew all the way back to Australia to undergo a scan, and Cameron Green’s bowling loads were restricted in the early part of the season, much to the chagrin of KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane.

When players hold contracts with two entities – national board and IPL franchise, here – some back-and-forth is inevitable. But in its own tournament, the BCCI demonstrably has the ability to issue directives to franchises: the release of Mustafizur Rahman a prime example. Maybe it would be wise for the board to have more control in Bumrah's case, for the longer-term good of Indian cricket.

Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.