Mumbai Indians will be hoping that the loss of Jasprit Bumrah to a back injury is offset as much as possible by the availability of Jofra Archer, now fit and firing, in the IPL 2023.
In the absence of Bumrah, Jofra Archer will be spearheading the MI bowling attack this season.
The England fast bowler is looking at his menacing best in the nets and training sessions.
In an intra-squad match between the MI squad members, Jofra Archer troubled the MI openers, skipper Rohit Sharma and left-hander Ishan Kishan with his high pace and extra bounce he generates.
The MI Twitter handle uploaded the video of his first over in Mumbai’s practice match, wherein the speedster made both Rohit and Kishan nervous and fidgety. He targeted Rohit’s body as the MI skipper managed to just fend off his fast deliveries, while Kishan was beaten on a couple of occasions on his outside edge.
Watch: Jofra Archer troubles Rohit and Kishan with his bowling in training
"Post bowling video Admin" – Presenting Jofra चा पहिला over in MI colors 😍💙#OneFamily #MumbaiMeriJaan #MumbaiIndians #IPL2023 #TATAIPL @JofraArcher MI TV pic.twitter.com/h2Y1KvEV1O
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) March 31, 2023
In the pre-tournament press conference, MI Skipper and head coach Mark Boucher spoke about what would be the make-up of Mumbai’s bowling in the absence of Bumrah. This will be the first season since Bumrah made his debut in 2013 that he’ll not be available to play in an entire season, but MI are ready to open some “surprise packages” this tournament. MI are also without Jhye Richardson.
“Losing Bumrah has been a big loss for us, I’ll be honest with that,” Boucher said in Mumbai on Wednesday. “But by losing a player sometimes you get opportunity. The way Mumbai Indians have selected their squads over the last few years has been…how you select your playing XI and then your back-up XI and then you invest in a couple of youngsters for the future. It’s now time for those youngsters to show up and basically get the opportunities.
“For me, the big thing about this season for our bowling line-up is we have got experience, but we’ve got one or two little spaces for couple of the juniors to come through and showcase their skills. I’m looking forward to seeing them. The IPL is a massive event and it’s going to be a great opportunity for some of our young boys to really show up. We’ve got some great variation in our bowling attack; I think our batting is very very strong. But our bowling is almost going to be a surprise package.”
