Five matches, zero wickets: Jasprit Bumrah is stuck in the longest dry spell of his IPL career
There is a mark on every spell Jasprit Bumrah has bowled in IPL 2026 that nobody at Mumbai Indians wanted to see. Five matches in, the most feared bowler in white-ball cricket has gone without a single wicket. It is the longest barren run of his IPL career, and it has arrived at the worst possible time for a Mumbai side already staring down the bottom of the table.
Bumrah bowled his four overs at Wankhede on Thursday against Punjab Kings and walked back with figures of 0 for 41 at an economy rate of 10.25. It was the latest chapter in a story that has been building for weeks. Across the season so far he has conceded 164 runs without once getting his arms up in celebration, and the economy rate of 8.63 is the kind of number you usually associate with a part-timer, not the bowler Mumbai built their entire attack around.
The frustration is starting to show
Anyone who watched Mumbai’s defeat to RCB earlier in the season saw a version of Bumrah we are not used to. There was a moment between overs when he hurled his run-up marker away and kicked at the turf, visibly furious with himself. Bumrah does not normally lose his cool on a cricket field. That he did says everything about how much this run has got under his skin.
Mumbai head coach Mahela Jayawardene has been in public defence of his strike bowler, suggesting a minor niggle carried over from the T20 World Cup and a need for a bit of luck to turn. Irfan Pathan offered a more tactical explanation from the outside, arguing that Bumrah’s slower-ball percentage has crept too high and his pace has dropped, which has made his variations easier to read.
Why batters have stopped attacking him
The other problem is harder to solve with a tweak to his action. Opposing teams have clearly decided that Bumrah is not the bowler to take down. They are playing him out, milking twos and fours off the other Mumbai bowlers, and letting Bumrah’s pressure dissipate into the later overs when set batters have the licence to swing. If you do not give him catching opportunities and you refuse to take risks, the wickets simply do not come.
With Mumbai now at 1-4 from five games and sitting last on the table, the pressure on Bumrah to drag his team out of this hole is enormous. Whether it is a fitness issue, a tactical one, or simply the sort of lean patch every great bowler hits eventually, Mumbai need him to find an answer fast. Another wicketless outing and the conversation around his workload, and his fitness, will only get louder.
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