Mumbai Indians defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad on Monday (May 6) to somehow stay alive in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). With fate no more in their hands, the five-time champions, one can say, have been more or less knocked out of IPL 2024. In that case, with T20 World Cup coming up, should one of India's main bowlers Jasprit Bumrah be rested for the rest of the matches? This is the question being raised but MI batting coach Kieron Pollard has confirmed that no such discussion has taken place yet.
Bumrah is India's best hope with the ball at the World Cup. He has been bowling exceptionally well this season and is also the proud owner of the purple cap with 18 wickets to his name in 12 matches. Notably, his economy of 6.21 in 47.5 overs in such a high-scoring season is unreal and for the same reason, there is a concern among fans and experts around his workload.
However, Pollard played down the possibility stating 'we are here to play entire IPL'. "I certainly haven't had any discussions about that. I don't think that's my role and function at this point in time. But let's see what happens. We are all here to play an entire IPL. Sometimes when we think too far ahead of different things, thinking about World Cups, all these things could affect performances even from before the team was selected," Pollard said.
"For us and in our camp, the most important thing is finishing off the IPL and let's see what happens after that. When he leaves the IPL and he goes into the Indian team, I think that's where that concession will take place," he further added.
Mumbai Indians will play their last league game on May 17 against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and with them almost knocked out, Bumrah could well be among the first batch of players to fly out to the USA on May 21 alongside Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav. For the unversed, team India will play its first match of the T20 World Cup against Ireland on June 5.
