Imagine a scenario where one isn’t able to follow an IPL season judiciously. Then you tell them, that the best pacer in the world — Jasprit Bumrah had a poor campaign for MI in IPL 2026; it would just be impossible for the fan to predict, that he ended with only 4 wickets in 13 matches. That kind of stat is unbelievable, even for the ones who have tracked the season really closely.
Bumrah gets 4 wickets in IPL 2026
Never had it happened, that Bumrah played 10 matches, and ended with wickets in single digits. But that is exactly how cruel the entire two months panned out for him. Before we go any further, let us just clarify one thing — the poor campaign is only because of the drought in the wickets column, but his economy rate was well within check, at 8.36 only.
In fact, even in his worst performance, he still has the best economy among all the other MI bowlers. What is even more surprising is, the economy of 8.36 is his worst since 2015 — where it grew to 12.26. But, getting back to the wickets column — nothing seemed to work for the 32-year-old bowler. The last time he finished with single-digit wickets in an IPL season was in 2015.
| Year | Matches | Wickets | Average | Economy | Best Bowling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 13 | 4 | 102.5 | 8.37 | 1/15 |
| 2025 | 12 | 18 | 17.56 | 6.68 | 4/22 |
| 2024 | 13 | 20 | 16.8 | 6.48 | 5/21 |
| 2023 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2022 | 14 | 15 | 25.53 | 7.18 | 5/10 |
| 2021 | 14 | 21 | 19.52 | 7.45 | 3/36 |
| 2020/21 | 15 | 27 | 14.96 | 6.73 | 4/14 |
| 2019 | 16 | 19 | 21.52 | 6.63 | 3/20 |
| 2018 | 14 | 17 | 21.88 | 6.88 | 3/15 |
| 2017 | 16 | 20 | 21.95 | 7.39 | 3/7 |
| 2016 | 14 | 15 | 27.06 | 7.8 | 3/13 |
| 2015 | 4 | 3 | 61.33 | 12.26 | 1/38 |
| 2014 | 11 | 5 | 60.2 | 7.58 | 2/22 |
| 2013 | 2 | 3 | 23.33 | 10 | 3/32 |
Since then, it had been raining wickets, for Bumrah, who saw his best year in 2020/21, where he ended with 27 scalps. The other times he ended the season with 20 wickets or more, was in 2017, 2021, and 2024.
What went wrong with Jassi?
MI head coach had recently opened up on Bumrah’s inability to get among the wickets this year. He clarified, that it was more to do with a niggle, than his personal form. “Coming back from the World Cup as well, he had a slight niggle which he played with through the World Cup, so we gave him adequate rest after he returned. The first four or five games were a gradual build-up for him to recover fully, and you could see the pace was slightly down because of that,” Jayawardene said in the pre-match press conference.
But then this year done, one can only hope that he returns to the IPL next year with renewed energy, and gets back to his wicket-taking ways.
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