Star Indian pacers’ return to the game was delayed for an indefinite period; No confirmation for Jasprit Bumrah’s return in IPL 2025
Indian legendary pacer often referred to as the greatest pacer of his generation, Jasprit Bumrah has not yet recovered from an injury he faced during the last Border-Gavaskar Test match at the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground.
On the other hand, another star pacer Akash Deep has also been ruled out since his participation in the BGT 2024-25, even though this paceman has been in rehabilitation for a long time in the BCCI’s centre of excellence in Bengaluru.
Jasprit Bumrah missed India’s proceedings at India’s victorious 2025 ICC Champions Trophy in the United Arab Emirates. Jasprit Bumrah was retained by the Mumbai Indians for a whopping INR 18 crores in IPL 2025, while on the other hand, Akash Deep was released by his former franchise RCB and picked for a whopping INR 8 Crores by Lucknow Super Giants.
According to initial claims from certain reports, Bumrah was considered to return to the IPL with the Mumbai Indians in their first home game at Wankhede against the Kolkata Knight Riders. However, at this point, Bumrah has not even joined the MI squad and was seen bowling in the nets in the NCA just a few days back.
According to recent reports and claims made by the Times of India, the Indian pace maestro is yet to bowl with full intensity in the nets, and even the physios fear that their might be a recurrence of his stress back fracture. Though Bumrah is declared clinically fit, his workload is being slowly increased and is under monitoring. Bumrah earlier already had a back surgery after he missed the 2022 T20 World Cup with India.
“Bumrah himself is being careful. He is bowling at the CoE but it could take longer to get back in full swing. No definite timeline has been set yet, but one hopes he gets back by mid-April,” a source revealed to TOI.
Akash Deep’s return also pushed back over a week
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) who picked several young Indian pacers showed reliability on non-foreign pacers. His injury alongside Mayank Yadav and Mohsin Khan was a huge concern for the IPL franchise.
The right-arm pacers unavailability caused serious trouble while Shardul Thakur and Avesh Khan have been taken into the side, while Prince Yadav out of the blue has been one of the finest picks though his skills do not suffice to replace Akash Deep.
Ever since the Boxing Day test, Akash Deep has not played a single match and for now, his comeback has been delayed over a week. LSG can rely on the player's possible return as he would be up for selection midway through the tournament.
Both these two Indian red-ball pacers are under the radar of the National selectors for selection into the 5-match Test series between India and England.
ALSO READ: RCB vs GT Dream11 Prediction