Ahead of the match between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Gujarat Titans (GT), MI’s head coach Mahela Jayawardene addressed the status of their key fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah. He mentioned that the team is currently awaiting clearance from the National Cricket Academy (NCA); however, they have not been provided with an estimated timeframe for this process. This statement was made in Ahmedabad (Gujarat), India, on March 28 by ANI.

Led by Shubman Gill, GT and captained by Hardik Pandya, MI will look to bounce back from their disappointing opening defeats when they face each other in an intense encounter at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday.

MI’s upcoming game versus the current title holders, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), will see them make their comeback at the Wankhede Stadium; however, Bumrah won’t be joining them for this encounter since he is still awaiting approval from the NCA during his ongoing rehabilitation from back problems.

Prior to the game, speaking with ESPNCricinfo, Jayawardene commented about Bumrah saying, “He’s following his routine every day. Everything appears fine up until now; however, since the NCA didn’t provide any specific deadlines, we’ll have to wait for further updates.”

During Day 2 of the concluding Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Bumrah experienced back spasms. Following medical examinations, he went back to the locker room amid growing anticipation about his participation on Day 3. Post-BGT, he underwent rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy and hasn’t participated in any games since then, including India’s victorious ICC Champions Trophy tournament.

In the previous season, despite MI ending up at the lower end of the standings, Bumrah emerged as the team’s top wicket-taker and secured the third position overall, claiming 20 wickets across 13 games with an impressive average of 16.80. His best performance included bowling figures of 5/21.

Bumrah stands as the ninth highest wicket-taker in IPL history and holds the position of MI’s second top wicket-taker, having claimed 165 wickets across 133 games with an average of 22.51, including two instances where he took five or more wickets in a match. His contributions have been significant during MI’s five championship victories.

Squads:

Gujarat Titans Team Members: Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (captain), Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan, Arshad Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Sherfane Rutherford, Glenn Phillips, Ishant Sharma, Anuj Rawat, Washington Sundar, Mahipal Lomror, Jayant Yadav, Nishant Sindhu, Kulwant Khejroliya, Karim Janat, Gerald Coetzee, Manav Suthar, Kumar Kushagra, Gurnoor Brar

The Mumbai Indians team includes Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (wicketkeeper), Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (captain), Tilak Varma, Robin Minz, Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Satyanarayana Raju, Vignesh Puthur, Raj Bawa, Ashwini Kumar, Corbin Bosch, Karn Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Reece Topley, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Bevon Jacobs, Arjun Tendulkar, and Krishnan Shrijith. (ANI)