Former Indian cricket team spinner Harbhajan Singh backed star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah despite a poor campaign for Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2026. Bumrah has taken just 3 wickets in 11 matches at an economy rate of 8.51 and his lack of form has been a major reason behind MI getting eliminated from the playoffs race. While Bumrah has been facing a bit of criticism from both fans as well as experts, Harbhajan shifted the blame to the rest of the bowlers. He pointed out that rest of the MI bowlers have not performed that well and over-reliance on Bumrah has resulted in extra pressure for the fast bowler.
“Jasprit Bumrah is the kind of bowler who can change a match at any moment. But relying too heavily on him is not the right thing to do. I think the other bowlers in the side, like Trent Boult, Deepak Chahar and Hardik Pandya, are all low on confidence,” Harbhajan said on JioStar.
“The challenge in that camp is how to bring them back to the same level of confidence as the others. Mumbai Indians have depended on Bumrah ever since he came into the side, but at the moment, they are relying on him far too heavily.”
“Somebody else also needs to pick up wickets. Spinners, too, are a concern. I think the biggest weakness of this side is the lack of quality local spinners. There used to be some good Indian spinners in the past, but there is no one at this point, and that is a major gap in the squad,” he added.
Harbhajan won three IPL titles with MI between 2013 to 2017 and he believes that the franchise has not been the same in the recent past.
“The body language of Mumbai Indians, which also plays a big role, is something I have never seen like this before. I have been part of this team for nearly 10 years. Even when we were losing, like in the season where we lost five in a row, our body language was never flat, the will to fight back was always there,” he said.
“Right now, that confidence is missing. Somebody needs to lead the way and say, ‘Whatever has happened is in the past. How we change things from here will depend on how we react on the field.’ It starts with one person, someone who needs to step up as that leader and take the team forward,” he added.
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