Who would have thought that a star-studded Mumbai Indians lineup would not qualify for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 playoffs? Before the start of the 19th edition of the T20 tournament, most of the pundits and fans picked the five-time champions as one of the major contenders for the title, but it wasn’t meant to be. The Mumbai Indians were officially eliminated from the playoff race on Sunday night after losing to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by two wickets in Raipur.
Mumbai, one of the most successful franchises in IPL history, has been bogged down by the underperformance of its star players, including Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah. The three senior players failed to live up to their reputation in the 2026 edition. Rohit Sharma also missed five matches in the middle due to a hamstring injury, while Hardik missed the last two games for the franchise due to a back spasm.
After the loss against the defending champions RCB on Sunday, Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene was asked about the “non-performance” of the senior players and whether the coaching staff had taken them aside to boost their confidence.
“Hi coach, just a word, when it comes to some of your senior players, they’ve had an up and down season. When it comes to taking them aside and maybe getting them finally back on their feet, how much of a political decision was that?” the reporter asked Jayawardene in the post-match press conference.
Answering the question, Jayawardene said there was nothing “political” about talking to senior players, and the franchise’s poor performance is just down to the entire squad not being good enough.
“No, I don’t think it is, but I thought, yeah, I mean, when you know the qualities, they’re also trying to do their best and if I knew that it was something to do with that, I would have spoken to them, but Nets, the commitment, the effort that they’re putting is unbelievable, so I was quite determined with Ro getting injured and coming back and batting the way he batted, all that, it sums up,” said Jayawardene.
“I mean the core group is quite valuable for us, you can’t just keep changing, we went with the trust, the confidence that we have with them and then it is what it is, like I said, it’s difficult for me to go beyond that, but there was no reason for us to say them because they came from World Cup and they had a really good World Cup, winning a World Cup and all that, as a unit, we haven’t been good enough,” he added.
‘Lost for words’
The former Sri Lanka captain found it tough to describe the team’s performance in the IPL 2026 season, saying he cannot exactly sum it up for now and that it will take him some time to go back to the drawing board and figure out what went wrong.
“The season, it’s disappointing, we’ve had our opportunities, we were not good enough, we were not consistent enough with the ball, with the bat and that showed the margins. We were probably 2-3 wins away from being in the same group of contenders to get into that playoff, but we didn’t get those wins. Today was another classic example of us being short, so it’s difficult for me to sum up the season right now. I have to give it some thought as well and then figure out,” said Jayawardene.
“We were not good enough with our skills and execution this season,” he added.
Speaking of the Mumbai Indians, the franchise has now gone six seasons without winning the IPL title. The team is also in danger of finishing last. The five-time champions are currently in the ninth spot with just 6 points.