It felt fairly routine when Jasprit Bumrah handed his cap to the umpire and took the new ball against Gujarat Titans on Monday. In truth, it was the first time he had started an IPL match since 2022. The result was immediate: one ball, one nip-backer, B Sai Sudharsan gone, Mumbai Indians en route to a 199-run defence that never really looked in doubt.
Until this game Mumbai had been handing the first over to Deepak Chahar (three times) or Trent Boult (twice). They had just one win from five, and Bumrah had yet to tick the wickets column. The logic was understandable – hold the trump card for overs two or three when batters are already looking to attack – but the evidence was beginning to stack up against it.
“You feel like it’s going to be a recurring thing now for the rest of the games,” Faf du Plessis quipped on the TimeOut show when Sudharsan trudged off. It may have been a joke, yet the South African’s wider point – that the best bowler should sometimes bowl first – landed cleanly enough.
Abhinav Mukund expanded on the same theme: “[If Bumrah bowls the first over] you can afford to, with three other pace-bowling options, not have a powerplay specialist per se,” he said. “They tried Boult. They tried Chahar. And for the first time since 2022, Jasprit Bumrah gets to bowl the first over, and not when teams are 40 for no loss, 50 for no loss, 60 for no loss. It’s been no loss throughout the season [except against Delhi Capitals] every time he’s come on to bowl.”
The numbers back him up. When Bumrah was introduced second, fourth or fifth over earlier in the tournament, the opposition were already cruising. On Monday it was different. “[On this occasion, it was] 0 for 0, he comes in, and then suddenly he strikes and you end up seeing a difference,” Mukund added. “I’m not saying the first-over wicket was the turning point of the game, but I’m just saying the affordability to do that against a side like Gujarat Titans, who aren’t so great in the middle [overs] against spin – so you decided to go with two spinners – sort of adds up for this game.”
Du Plessis picked up the momentum angle. “We talk about this as a momentum [shift] in the field. Everyone comes out, ‘come on boys’, you know, ‘today is the day’, and then the first over goes for 13-14 and the wind just gets knocked out of you a little bit,” he said. “You just feel like straightaway in the field the body language drops a little bit. So the fact that Bumrah – we all agree is the greatest bowler of this generation in white-ball cricket – [bowled the] first over and it just kicks belief into that team that today is the day that we can have a good day.”
Mumbai have not lifted the trophy since 2020. Their slide has coincided with the new-ball swinging a bit less and the Impact Player rule encouraging top-order hitters to go even harder. Mukund acknowledged as much: “The fact that with this impact player thing, I know teams are going hard. The ball also doesn’t swing after the third over now in the last four to five years, and sort of coincided with Mumbai’s decline, where they bring him on [later in the powerplay] and then you expect him to get wickets with his sheer skill,” he said. “He does [get wickets], with his yorker and slower ball and he’s got the skills.”
Those skills were on show again three overs later when he nailed a pinpoint yorker at Shubman Gill, ending any realistic tilt at the chase. Whether Mumbai stick with this new-ball plan or shuffle the deck again, the evidence from Ahmedabad suggests their most reliable option is also their simplest one: hand the brand-new Kookaburra to Bumrah and let him set the tone.
