Jasprit Bumrah has been a constant talking point in IPL 2026. And much of it has been about how he hasn’t been picking up wickets, how his pace is down, how Mumbai Indians (MI) haven’t always used him right, and about members of the MI set-up coming out and saying things like Bumrah is “up for the challenge” and “when the time comes to get wickets, he’ll get wickets“.

There were no wickets for Bumrah on Monday night at the Wankhede against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) – the seventh such game for him this season – and 45 runs were given. Enough for Sanjay Bangar and Veda Krishnamurthy to suggest that the team management should speak to Bumrah and ask him if he wants a break.

“We are in that space that the management, or coach or even captain – Surya[kumar Yadav] is pretty close to him, he is the vice-captain of the squad – and Rohit [Sharma] is around, they can probably honestly sit and have a chat,” Veda said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show. “Ask him: ‘are you feeling 100% from within?’, ‘do you want to take a break for a game or so?’. So that he comes back fresh. That is something you can probably ask him and expect him to answer you honestly.

“And if he does that, I think if he says ‘no, I am good to go, I will play’, you will probably see a better version of him, because he will try to push even more harder… an honest conversation is something [that’s] just to have that reassurance saying that ‘I need a break’ or ‘I can go ahead and play’. I think that is something you can probably ask and figure out.”

Bumrah’s mediocre returns this season have coincided with MI’s poor run on the whole – they are at No. 9 on the points table with three wins from ten games. Bangar suggested that MI should be prepared to go without Bumrah, and risk having a forgettable season.

“It also boils down to what the coach and the management is thinking,” Bangar said. “I mean, from a coaching perspective or from a management perspective, if MI are okay to play without Bumrah, if MI are okay to maybe finish the season in the lower ranks, so to say, as far as the point stable is concerned, if that is the case, then I think Bumrah may probably in all likelihood take that to call of, you know, not playing the rest of the games.”

On Monday, Bumrah bowled the second over after MI asked LSG to bat, and conceded ten runs. No drama. Fourth over, full of drama. Mostly Bumrah pitching short. Third ball, wide, and two runs taken. Next ball, over long-on for six from Mitchell Marsh. Then a no-ball, hit for four. The free-hit also went for four. Eight balls in total, and 21 runs conceded.

Away he went, only to come back in the 14th. It took him nine balls to complete the over this time, and it was a sign of how much Aiden Markram and Himmat Singh were struggling that Bumrah only gave away seven runs. And there was the wicket-that-wasn’t. A big front-foot no-ball that reprieved Himmat after a nick behind. With Markram and Himmat there till the end, and still struggling to score, Bumrah finished well, giving away seven runs in the 19th over.

“I felt that despite going for a lot of runs against Mitchell Marsh [in the powerplay] – he had no-balls, yes, he did not pick up a wicket – I liked how he came back and bowled those two overs in the death,” Veda said. “He didn’t give much [away] in those two overs. He looked brilliant; the dipping yorker that we talked about, the slower one where he was deceiving Markram and Himmat Singh consistently, I think that should give [him] a lot of confidence.”

Bumrah’s lack of success wasn’t for lack of trying, Bangar said. “He is trying very, very hard, and it’s very unlike Bumrah to go for 31 in the first two overs. An average pace of 134 [kph] with the fastest being 141 [in the game]. So he is trying his heart out – you can see it in his body language that he is hurting – but I just feel that he is not being used correctly. He was bowled in the second over, then again in the fourth over.

“I am a firm believer that you give your [best] bowler two good overs right at the start [the first and the third].”