'I am Used to Playing Without Jasprit Bumrah': Rohit Sharma Challenges MI Bowlers to Step up

Mumbai Indians bowling appeared listless in their IPL 2023 campaign opener as Royal Challengers Bangalore raced away to the target of 172 inside 17 overs for a big eight-wicket in on Sunday night.

Such was RCB’s dominance that their opening pair of Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli looked set to chase down the total on their own before the partnership was broken in the 15th over with the scorecard reading 148.

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Barring Piyush Chawla and Jofra Archer to an extent, all other MI bowlers copped brutal punishment.

Naturally, the the name Jasprit Bumrah became a topic of discussion – a bowler who has been quite vital to MI’s plans. Bumrah is missing the entire season as he continues recovery from a back surgery.

MI captain Rohit Sharma, who also leads the Indian men’s team, admitted he’s become used to playing Bumrah who hasn’t played competitive cricket since September last year. He has thrown up the challenge to other MI bowlers to step up in the fast bowler’s absence.

“From the last six to eight months I am used to playing without Jasprit Bumrah. Of course, this is a different setup but someone needs to put their hand up and step up. We can’t keep dwelling on it. Injuries are not in our control, we can’t do much about it. The other guys in the setup are quite talented as well. We need to give them that support. Just the first game of the season, there’s a lot to look forward to," Rohit said after the match.

MI bowling coach Shane Bond wasn’t impressed with his bowlers either, noting how they offered too much width to the RCB openers allowing them to free their arms.

“We just offered too much width at the start of our inning, so we got hit to both sides of the pitch, and as I said, we couldn’t really create any pressure. We never really strung two overs together where we felt like the game was squeezing and that was obviously a little bit to do with our bowling," Bond told reports.

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