Hardik Pandya gives a witty reply when asked about Bumrah’s wicket drought

JaspritBumrah finally opened his wicket account in IPL 2026 with a first-ball breakthrough for the Mumbai Indians against the Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad.

In IPL 2026, JaspritBumrah, who plays for the Mumbai Indians (MI), had not opened his wicket account till the match with the Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad on Monday. He had gone wicketless in his first five matches, but he broke his wicket drought with a first-ball breakthrough for the franchise against the Gujarat Titans. Hardik Pandya, captain of MI, was asked about the same, and he gave a fiery reply.

MI captain Hardik Pandya gives a witty reply when asked about Bumrah’s wicket drought.

When asked about Bumrah taking a wicket on the first ball of the first over of the GT innings, MI captain Hardik Pandya gave a fiery reply. He said, “Yeah, it’s quite fascinating. I’ve seen a lot of people ask why Jasprit has never bowled the first over. But if you see, it’s been 151 appearances, and I think eight or nine times Jasprit has bowled the first over. So I don’t think it’s a Hardik Pandya problem. It’s just that JaspritBumrah is so special that you use him wherever it’s required for the team, not necessarily at the start. But today, we realised that we really wanted to make an impact with the new ball, and no one’s better than him.” Bumrah removed Sai Sudharsan with the very first ball to break the deadlock and conceded just one run in the over. He eventually finished with figures of 3-0-15-1 as MI successfully defended a total of 199.

Hardik Pandya also expressed satisfaction after MI snapped its 4-match losing streak.

IPL 2026 hasn’t seen more winning matches from MI. However, after winning the latest match against GT in Ahmedabad, Hardik Pandya expressed his satisfaction. He said, “Very important. It’s always challenging to go away and win. Also, Ahmedabad has not been a happy hunting ground for the Mumbai Indians, so it’s very satisfying. It was about bowling in the right areas and with the right intent. Really amazing effort by the youngsters, and then the fielding had to click as well.”

Following the win, the Mumbai Indians have climbed to 7th on the points table with 4 points from 6 matches. On April 23, they will face Chennai Super Kings (CSK).