Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene agreed that fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah is the fulcrum around which the bowling unit of the side operates in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
“I mean, that is always going to happen, but we don’t put a lot of pressure on Jasprit, saying that he has to be (always there).We have created a very good bowling unit around him, and not taking pressure too much, he delivers,” said Jayawardene, after playing a round of 18 holes in the ProAm Championship, promoted by the Golf Foundation, at the Willingdon Sports Club here on Friday.
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Jayawardene felt that since Bumrah is young, there is lot more to come from him. “He is brilliant, he is learning; every day, he is evolving which is great. We want to create a complete unit, put a lot of emphasis on our bowling.
“Over the last few years, the bowling unit has performed really well under pressure. Some close matches we have won, in fact both finals. We defended low scores. We are trying to create that culture and Jasprit is part of that,” he said.
MI has won the IPL four times, the last triumph being in 2019.
Bumrah is slowly recovering from a stress fracture. He was under a rehab programme to mend his back. “It’s good. He has started training. He was in Visakhapatnam bowling to the Indian team at the nets. The MI staff is closely monitoring his progress. Hardik Pandya is (also) making good progress…we are quite happy, hopefully they will play the Sri Lanka series, or may be the Australia series. I am not sure how quickly they will come through. It depends on the medical staff, but as long as they are playing in January, February, its fine.”
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Jayawardene said that both Bumrah and Pandya are more important for the Indian team. “I guess more than for MI, they are more valuable to the Indian national team. It is important we manage all that. I am quite happy that everything is going right for us.”
When asked about Sri Lanka’s decision to travel to Pakistan, Jayawardene said: “It was eventually going to happen. Sports is something that unites things. A lot of other teams have gone there before. People have to move on, it is unfortunate what has happened there. I guess times have changed and it is the right thing to do at the right time.”
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