Bumrah available for MI's opening game; Santner, Jacks yet to join

Mumbai Indians begin their IPL 2026 campaign at home against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday

Jasprit Bumrah has joined the Mumbai Indians (MI) squad and is available for their opening match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Wankhede on Sunday, according to head coach Mahela Jayawardene. He had missed MI's training session on Friday but was present on Saturday, the eve of the game against KKR.

Bumrah was at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru recently to work on strength and conditioning. It is understood the plan for Bumrah to go to the CoE was devised by the BCCI medical team with the focus on India's white-ball tour of England in July.

In IPL 2025, Bumrah was the second highest wicket-taker for MI despite missing the first four matches due to a back injury. In 12 games, he took 18 wickets at an economy rate of 6.67, helping his team reach the playoffs. More recently, he was the joint highest wicket-taker at the 2026 T20 World Cup.

MI will also be without New Zealand left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner and England allrounder Will Jacks for their opening game.

"Mitch and Jacksy both asked for a slightly extended time for personal reasons," Jayawardene said on the eve of MI's season opener against KKR. "And we were quite happy to go with that. But they'll join the team pretty soon.

"I'm not sure [when they will join] but pretty soon. It's just that we don't want to divulge what is not fair for either party. But being honest, we feel that it's fine with us with who we have got."

In their absence, MI could play West Indian middle-order batter Sherfane Rutherford and Afghanistan spinner AM Ghazanfar.

While MI haven't won their first match of an IPL season since 2012, they have a formidable record against KKR at the Wankhede, winning ten out of their 12 games over the years.