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Five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) Champions Mumbai Indians (MI) have been dealt a severe blow even before the start of IPL 2023 with injury ruling out ace paceman Jasprit Bumrah. Mumbai finished bottom of the table in last year's IPL, and Bumrah's absence will further dent the team's chances this year.
Bumrah has been out of action since September 2022 with a back injury that aggravated further, forcing the star bowler to miss the T20 World Cup that followed in September. The paceman underwent rehabilitation in November and started bowling again by mid-December. However, a recurrence of the same injury ruled Bumrah out of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the upcoming IPL.
The franchise has now announced Sandeep Warrier as Bumrah's replacement for the IPL. Warrier has represented India in one T20I and has overall played 68 T20s with 62 wickets to his name. The right-arm medium pacer has been a prominent name at first-class level for his state Kerala with 217 wickets in 66 matches.
Warrier had earlier been part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) franchises in 2013-2015 and 2019-2021. The pacer was unsold at last year's mini-auction.
"He's in a good space at the moment" - Mumbai Indians head coach Mark Boucher on Jofra Archer
Mumbai Indians head coach Mark Boucher was upbeat about Jofra Archer ahead of the upcoming IPL season.
The former South African wicket-keeper batsman believes that Archer is raring to go and mentioned how Archer playing a lot of cricket off late will serve the Mumbai Indians well.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of MI's upcoming campaign, Boucher said on Archer:
"Jofra has come off a major injury and he's been playing a lot of cricket of late which is good. He's in a good space at the moment, he's really ready to get out there and perform. Hopefully he can kickstart the IPL with a bang."
Boucher also talked about how the Mumbai Indians' bowling attack may surprise the opposition despite the absence of Jasprit Bumrah:
"Losing Bumrah has been a big loss for us, I'll be honest with that. 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."
He continued:
"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."
Mumbai Indians will kick off their campaign against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Sunday (April 2).
