“It's going to create a couple of holes” - Mark Boucher admits Bumrah, Archer injuries made life tough for MI

Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mark Boucher conceded that injuries to key pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer made life challenging for the franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. He admitted that if players can’t get over their injuries, they will be forced to look elsewhere.

Mumbai’s IPL 2023 campaign ended following a 62-run loss to defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) in Qualifier 2 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday, May 26. Lead pacer Bumrah was ruled out of the entire edition due to his back injury. Archer played five matches for MI, but subsequently headed back to England following a recurrence of his elbow troubles.

In Bumrah and Archer’s absence, Akash Madhwal (14 wickets) and Jason Behrendorff (14 wickets) did a decent job for MI. However, it often seemed the franchise lacked firepower in the pace bowling department.

In a post-match press conference, Boucher opened up on the impact of Bumrah and Archer’s absence and hinted about their uncertain future with MI. He said:

“In the bowling, you lose two of your stars in the bowling lineup, it's going to create a couple of holes and we try to fix it up as best as possible. You know, hopefully, the guys can get over their injuries. If they can't, then we might have to look at other places and there are so many things that we can talk about.

“Not for me to start opening up a can of worms now, it would be stupid. I think it's time to just sit back, reflect a bit, take the emotion out of it and make some good sound cricketing decisions once everything's calmed down and once we understand the future of certain individuals and where they are from a fitness perspective.”

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Bumrah made his debut for MI in IPL 2013 and is one of the most successful bowlers in the T20 league. In 120 matches, he has claimed 145 wickets at an average of 23.30 and an economy rate of 7.39.

“233 was a bit high” - Boucher reflects on MI’s loss in Qualifier 2

Despite the absence of key bowlers, Mumbai Indians did commendably well to reach the IPL 2023 playoffs and even knocked out Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the Eliminator.

However, they failed to get the better of GT in Qualifier 2, going down in a chase of 234. Reflecting on the defeat, Boucher admitted that MI’s bowlers allowed Gujarat to score a few too many. He commented:

“Yes, 233 I thought was a bit high, to be fair. Probably 25 to 30 runs too much. It was a little bit unsettling because we weren't quite sure how Ishan [Kishan] was going to go [after his injury]. Nehal [Wadhera] we knew that he could do the job, in the practice games that we played, he actually opened the batting and he played fairly aggressively, which we really needed; someone to go out and play that way tonight.

“It didn't come off for us but it's T20 cricket. You got to adapt to the conditions and today we were thrown a bit of a curveball, unsettled us a bit.”

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MI sent GT into bat after winning the toss. However, Shubman Gill’s 129 off 60 balls lifted Gujarat to 233/3. Mumbai were all-out for 171 in response.