Star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah could make his captaincy debut for Mumbai Indians in their IPL 2026 match against Punjab Kings on Thursday (May 14). According to a report in Cricbuzz, the 32-year-old fast bowler from Ahmedabad, who has been associated with the Mumbai Indians in the IPL since the 2013 edition, could captain the five-time champions in their match against PBKS on Thursday in the absence of regular captain Hardik Pandya and vice-captain Suryakumar Yadav.
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It has been reported that Hardik has not travelled to Dharamsala for the match due to back spasms, which also forced him to miss the team’s last two matches against Lucknow Super Giants (on May 4) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru
(on May 10). Suryakumar is also unlikely for Thursday’s match due to personal reasons.
In their absence, Bumrah is the leading contender to captain the team. Another option to lead MI against PBKS is Tilak Varma. Rohit Sharma, who led MI to five IPL titles during his captaincy days in the IPL from 2013 to 2023, is unlikely to lead the team.
Bumrah has never captained the Mumbai Indians in the IPL so far, but he has experience of leading India in T20Is and Tests. He made his T20I captaincy debut for India against Ireland in August 2023, and his first Test as India captain was against England in Birmingham from July 1 to 5 in 2022. He also captained India in a couple of Test matches against Australia in the 2024-25 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
If Bumrah leads MI against PBKS on Thursday, then he will become the 10th player to captain the Mumbai Indians in the IPL.
List of players to captain Mumbai Indians in IPL
| PLAYER | COUNTRY | TIME SPAN | MATCHES | WINS | DEFEATS | TIE/NO RESULT |
| Harbhajan Singh | India | 2008-2012 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 0/0 |
| Shaun Pollock | South Africa | 2008-2008 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0/0 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | India | 2008-2011 | 51 | 30 | 21 | 0/0 |
| Dwayne Bravo | West Indies | 2010-2010 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0/0 |
| Ricky Ponting | Australia | 2013-2023 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0/0 |
| Rohit Sharma | India | 2013-2023 | 158 | 87 | 67 | 4/0 |
| Kieron Pollard | West Indies | 2019-2021 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0/0 |
| Suryakumar Yadav | India | 2023-2026* | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0/0 |
| Hardik Pandya | India | 2024-2026* | 37 | 15 | 22 | 0/0 |
Harbhajan Singh was the first player to captain the Mumbai Indians in the IPL, and he was followed by Shaun Pollock, Sachin Tendulkar, Dwayne Bravo, Ricky Ponting, Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya.
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