When Jasprit Bumrah Expressed His Desire Of Becoming Mumbai Indians Captain

When Jasprit Bumrah Expressed His Desire Of Becoming Mumbai Indians Captain (Source: AFP Photos)

Jasprit Bumrah made his captaincy debut for the Mumbai Indians franchise in match number 58 of the IPL 2026 season. The cricketer stepped in for the top role after regular captain Hardik Pandya and stand-in skipper Suryakumar Yadav were both ruled out of the playing XI owing to injury and personal reasons.

Notably, Bumrah had first expressed his captaincy desire for the Mumbai Indians back in November 2023 itself, shortly after the franchise named Pandya as Rohit Sharma’s successor.

When Jasprit Bumrah expressed his captaincy ambition

Back in November 2023, the Mumbai Indians franchise named Hardik Pandya as new team captain at an expense of five-time IPL winning skipper Rohit Sharma. The franchise confirmed the decision after Sharma went three seasons without winning a title, even though the legendary Indian opener was a veteran of five trophies as MI skipper.

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Not long after Hardik Pandya became Mumbai Indians’ new captain, fellow franchise legend Jasprit Bumrah dropped a cryptic post on his Instagram account. The seasoned paceman wrote “Silence is sometimes the best answer.”

Bumrah’s cryptic message put Mumbai Indians fans into speculative mode, with several of them believing that the legendary fast bowler had just expressed his desire of becoming captain. Some online fans even vocally expressed support for the speedster, even though new skipper Pandya was re-entering the franchise on a trail of Gujarat Titans success.

Jasprit Bumrah becomes captain number 10 for Mumbai Indians

Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav have both shared the burden of Mumbai Indians captaincy in the IPL 2026 season, considering the legendary all-rounder is yet to attain full recovery from his injury.

Prior to the match against Punjab Kings in Dharamsala on Thursday, May 14; even stand-in skipper Suryakumar Yadav made himself unavailable owing to personal reasons.

With both Pandya and Suryakumar missing, the team management appointed Jasprit Bumrah as new captain of the team. Notably, the senior Indian fast bowler became the tenth cricketer to lead Mumbai Indians in IPL history, joining the likes of Harbhajan Singh, Shaun Pollock, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, five-time title winning skipper Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Pandya among others.

With the feat, Bumrah also became the second-most capped cricketer in the history of the IPL to become a captain. Having played 156 games before taking over the leadership role of a franchise, the speedster fell behind Ravindra Jadeja (200 matches) for the all-time IPL record.

Bumrah undergoes his worst IPL season

Ironically, Jasprit Bumrah received his long-awaited captaincy responsibility for the Mumbai Indians when the fast bowler is undergoing the worst season of his storied IPL career.

In his first 12 matches of the tournament, the cricketer has picked up just three wickets at an expensive bowling average of 118. Moreover, it took him six games this IPL 2026 season to pick his first wicket, doing so with the prized scalp of Gujarat Titans opening batter Sai Sudharsan at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium.

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