In what comes as a delightful news for Mumbai Indians (MI), ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah has joined the franchise. While there is no confirmation when Bumrah will be available to play for MI, his return has come as a shot in the arm for the team that has lost three out of the four games. Bumrah has been out of action since the Border-Gavaskar Trophy when he picked up an injury in the fifth Test, which also ruled him out of the ICC Champions Trophy.

MI are set to take on RCB in a blockbuster clash on April 7 at Wankhede and it'll be interesting to see if the hosts unleash the gun pacer straightway.

Bumrah will be key for India in the Test series against England, and MI will have to manage his workload properly. Another injury to Bumrah could be career-threatening, feel experts. Recently, a BCCI source accepted that Bumrah's injury is serious, and he won't be able to play at least till mid-April. This was contrary to earlier reports that Bumrah would be available to play from the first week of April. If the statement is believed, Bumrah might still miss a few games for MI.

"Bumrah's injury is a bit more serious. The medical team wants to ensure he doesn't suffer a stress fracture. Bumrah himself is being careful. He is bowling at the CoE but it could take longer to get back in full swing. No definite timeline has been set yet, but one hopes he gets back by mid-April," The Times of India quoted a source as saying.

Earlier, New Zealand pacer Shane Bond weighed upon Bumrah's workload management and said that another injury on the same spot could be career ending. "He's too valuable for the next World Cup and stuff. So you'd be looking at five Tests in England, I wouldn't want to be playing him in any more than two in a row. Coming out of the back end of the IPL into a Test match is going to be a huge risk. And so how do they manage that is going to be key."

"They may say, look, it's four Test matches in total. Or three. If we can get him through the English summer and he's fit, we can probably then go with some confidence that we can carry him across the rest of the formats. So that's hard because he is your best bowler, but if he has another injury in the same spot, that could be a career-ender, potentially, because I'm not sure you can have surgery on that spot again," said Bond.

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