Bumrah set to return for MI

Mumbai Indians’ worries on the bowling front might have subsided a bit with Jasprit Bumrah set for a comeback, but they will hope for their batters to get the act together against an inspired Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL here on Monday.

Bumrah trained at nets here on Sunday after joining the MI camp on Saturday night, a good enough sign for head coach Mahela Jayawardene to confirm his availability for the game against RCB.

But with three defeats in four games marking yet another poor start for the five-time winners, Mumbai Indians are grappling with batting woes. Only two MI batters have hit half-centuries so far in four matches — Suryakumar Yadav and Ryan Rickelton. Among all the 10 IPL teams, this is the least number of contributions in terms of fifties per batter. Scoring fifties has always been tough in T20 cricket, but IPL teams have increasingly moved towards being top-heavy with their best batters getting most overs to bat.

At the centre of MI’s struggles with the bat are former skipper Rohit Sharma, who missed the last game against Lucknow Super Giants due to a blow to his knee at the nets after a poor start to the IPL, and middle-order batter Tilak Varma, who has not converted his starts into big scores.

It remains to be seen if Rohit is fit for the clash against RCB but MI will certainly need a quick fix to their batting woes and would need Suryakumar to continue doing the heavy lifting.

With 177 runs to his kitty, the India T20I captain has been MI’s best batter this season. His half-century gave MI a glimmer of hope against LSG, but it corresponded with Tilak’s failure to accelerate which left the lower-order with an uphill task in the chase.

MI’s only win so far came last week over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede, and they would need an encore.

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