Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has said that the Mumbai Indians (MI) need their premier pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah to be fit and available to turn around their fortunes in IPL 2025 as well. He also questioned their selection of squad against the Gujarat Titans (GT) and shared that they lack a fast bowler.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “Mujeeb (Ur Rahman) was playing but Vignesh Puthur wasn’t. Puthur picked up three wickets in the last match and you didn’t play him. The selection disappointed me a little. (Mitchell) Santner bowled only three overs and Mujeeb bowled only two. Satyanarayana Raju does well, but you had saved only the death overs for him. He is a bit of a death specialist, but I don’t think they are getting it right.”
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“You are missing Bumrah but you are not using the resources at your disposal properly. The ball was even reversing this time, but that much penetration was not seen because all three bowlers – Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar and Hardik Pandya – bowl at 135 kph. They are missing a proper, proper fast bowler. Bring Bumrah or else you will get stuck,” he further added.
While talking about the Mumbai Indians’ chase, Aakash Chopra added that Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton were found wanting once again as well.
“Mohammed Siraj hit Rohit Sharma’s stumps. The ball came in. Zero and eight are his two scores, which is not a good story. The start hasn’t been good. Ryan Rickelton has been dismissed off inside edges both times. They might have to make a change there because the ‘RR’ pair is not working. It is not doing the job properly. Hardik Pandya, you will have to come up the order. What are you doing? You cannot send Robin Minz above you because the required run rate was already very high. The game had already gone there, but you still sent Minz because you needed a left-right combination. It just defeats me,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
