Jasprit Bumrah went wicketless but bowled another impressive spell for the Mumbai Indians against KKR.
The IPL 2026 has witnessed back-to-back fierce 200-plus chases in the first two days of the league. Following the reigning champions, Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) dominating victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), the five-time champions, Mumbai Indians (MI), have also broken the opening match jinx to start off their campaign with a win.
But following the clash at the Wankhede Stadium, former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) opener Aakash Chopra has opened up about a key playing combination mistake that might have troubled MI in the last game.
Following a fierce start to the chase last night, MI had decided to sub out their ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah to send Suryakumar Yadav at No.3. A similar thing had happened with debutant Jacob Duffy in the IPL 2026 opener, as he bowled an impactful spell of four successive overs before Devdutt Padikkal replaced him in the RCB XI.
“They had subbed out Jasprit Bumrah to play Suryakumar Yadav. It’s a very easy thing to do when you’re easily winning the game. They also did it with Jacob Duffy. He bowled four overs early, took three wickets, and was subbed out,” he said on the micro-blogging platform X (formerly Twitter).
But he discussed how the teams’ approach of subbing out their best bowler might land them in trouble in the future fixtures. For instance, if MI’s one-sided chase against the Men in Purple had suddenly taken a turn during the final few overs and ended up in a tie, Bumrah could not have come again to bowl the super over, as he was already subbed out from the XI to bring in a batter.
“I’m just wondering if someday it happens that you think you’re winning the game easily, you don’t need your best bowling asset again, but cricket is unpredictable. What if the match gets tied? If it gets to a super over? If you have subbed out the best bowler in your attack, he can’t come and participate again. It hasn’t happened till now. But it might happen someday,” observed Chopra.
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Strategically, teams can sub out a bowler while chasing who has had an off-day on the field earlier and might not have much role to play with the bat as well. Speaking about last night, the Mumbai outfit could have subbed out AM Ghazanfar instead of Bumrah. The Afghanistani spinner could not have a memorable IPL debut, conceding 51 runs at an expensive economy of 12.75 while facing the three-time winners.
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