MI Coach Mahela Jayawardene Goes All Out On Reasons Behind Poor IPL 2026: "It's Not Fair"

Coming back into the competition from the brink is something that has been in the nature of Mumbai Indians, but they neither had individual brilliance nor collective effort in the 2026 IPL season, said head coach Mahela Jayawardene on Saturday. The five-time IPL winners Mumbai Indians were among the first teams to be knocked out of the playoff race this year, despite having four members of India's T20 World Cup-winning squad, including skipper Suryakumar Yadav. With Jasprit Bumrah (4 wickets), Hardik Pandya (172 runs, 4 wickets), Suryakumar (210) and Tilak Varma (356), MI had a healthy chunk of Indian players. Jayawardene said MI's ordinary run this year cannot be put on the disappointing show from these four players alone.

"It's not fair just to bring up (only) those four guys. As a group, a lot of the guys haven't been able to consistently perform -- that's how I see it," Jayawardene told reporters on the eve of their last match in IPL 2026 against Rajasthan Royals.

"Yes, they came from a very high level (of competition) in the World Cup and all that. (But) what you have to understand is how you play for your national team and how you play for the IPL franchise; sometimes it is different because the personnel is different."

"The roles can be different, how you want to go about it, so they had to switch up, and there's nothing wrong with the effort that they put in off the field training-wise and what they needed to do, and the conversations that we had with them," he added.

Jayawardene continued, "It's just that they were not able to go out there in the middle and execute. That is something that happens in a game of cricket, and that's something we also need to understand."

What Were Reason Behind MI's Failures

Jayawardene said MI's failure to make the playoffs was due to a lot of other factors working together.

"I can't just say one thing affected us, but it's a combination of a lot of things. We needed a lot of the other players and the entire squad to be in a very positive frame of mind, performing at least for seven, eight games," he said.

"In the past, we had individual players winning matches by themselves, and we haven't had that happening this year with the prominent players we had. That can happen."

"...so that means that collectively the team has to then perform to win some matches, and that also did not happen because a lot of the players did not perform to our expectations. We tried some youngsters also, but they also struggled in the heat of the moment. It's that sort of a season, and that's something that we have to reflect on," Jayawardene said.

The Mumbai Indians head coach said Rohit Sharma is 100 per cent fit but is being used as an impact substitute due to team combination factors. The former captain was picked in the Indian squad for the three-match ODI series against Afghanistan, but his availability is subject to fitness.

"He had a hamstring injury, (and) we gave him the time that he needed to recover from that," Jayawardene said.

"The first game or so, we were cautious, even with his batting, the way he was running, because he had to adapt slowly, gradually coming back into it."

"But for me, with the medical team, everything is 100 per cent. We're not putting him on the field because of what we've done in the past as well -- it's just the team combination. It has nothing to do with it, and I hope that it doesn't impact whatever the conversations or whatever is happening outside this bubble," Jayawardene added.

The Sri Lankan said Pandya expressing his frustration over a dropped chance in their previous match was a reflection of the situation.

"It is hard, not just for Hardik, but for all of us to go through a season where we know that we had the talent, we had the squad, but we were not able to execute and perform to the best of our ability," Jayawardene said.

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Topics mentioned in this article

Women's Mumbai Indians Mumbai Indians IPL 2026 Mahela Jayawardene