Separated by four days and 519 kilometres, IPL 2026 witnessed two extremes of Hardik Pandya.
“I don’t have much to say right now… Is it individuals? Is it as a group? Is it as planning?” — a despondent Pandya, failing to even make eye contact, told the broadcasters. A fourth straight loss of the season, a seven-wicket defeat against Punjab Kings at the Wankhede on April 16, sent Mumbai Indians crashing to the bottom of the table.
Mumbai Indians are perennial slow starters. On four previous occasions, they have stumbled early only to flip the script later and surge into the playoffs—or even lift the trophy. But this time felt different. Even with just one win in their first five matches, the conversations were far more worrying. MI looked a pale shadow of their former selves, left asking more questions than they had answers.
On April 20, back at the familiar Motera ground—where Pandya had led Gujarat to their maiden title in 2023—he looked transformed. Animated in celebration, fist-pumping, roaring, jumping with elation. Why? Because for the first time this season, Mumbai Indians looked like themselves again, thrashing Gujarat Titans by 99 runs. The difference? The stars had finally aligned.
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How Mumbai beat GT
It all began with what Pandya said after the loss to Punjab:
“These are some hard questions which eventually we need to answer, and yeah, ownership has to be taken.”
With their reputation at stake, Mumbai turned to their hallmark strength—backing talent. With Rohit Sharma still sidelined, MI made multiple changes. Danish Malewar and Krish Bhagat were handed debuts, Mitchell Santner replaced Shardul Thakur, while Ashwani Kumar came in as the Impact Sub to support Jasprit Bumrah.
Gujarat struck early. Shubman Gill won the toss, and Kagiso Rabada justified the call as MI lost three quick wickets in the powerplay. But in Naman Dhir, Mumbai found a new No. 3. Promoted up the order, he scored a half-century to rebuild the innings before it became a Tilak Varma show.
Tilak Varma had endured a lean run, managing just 43 runs in his first five games and crawling to 19 off 22 balls against GT. But a brief intervention from Pandya at the timeout changed everything. Tilak exploded—smashing 82 runs off his next 23 balls to power MI to 199 for five and bring up his maiden IPL century.
And that was just the intermission.
Minutes later, Bumrah finally broke through, dismissing Sai Sudharsan with the first ball of the innings—his first wicket after 153 deliveries, dating back to last season’s Eliminator. In the next over, Pandya removed Jos Buttler as GT limped to 46 for three in the powerplay.
Unlike previous games, Pandya used Bumrah aggressively, giving him two early overs, while Ashwani removed Gill in the fifth.
Any hopes of a comeback were crushed in the middle overs. Santner dismissed Washington Sundar and Glenn Phillips in the same over, while he and AM Ghazanfar choked the run flow, conceding just 32 runs in five overs and picking up key wickets. Ashwani returned to trigger a collapse, before Ghazanfar wrapped up the tail with the wickets of Mohammed Siraj and Rabada.
Gujarat were bundled out for 100 in 15.5 overs—one less than what Tilak had scored himself.
Mumbai know how to turn seasons around—and this could well be the moment.
“Is this that game?” the broadcaster asked.
“Yes,” Pandya replied, with a beaming smile.