After Mumbai Indians slumped to their third loss of the season on Sunday, their skipper Hardik Pandya said the team has been playing catch-up in IPL 2026 so far.
MI lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 18 runs, when they were restricted to 222 for 5 chasing RCB’s massive target of 241. Sherfane Rutherford scored an unbeaten 71 off 31 balls, but it was not enough to take them over the line.
“I think we conceded way too many (runs) as well. I think that was always going to be catch-up. I think in the last couple of games, as a bowling unit or even as a batting unit, we’ve been catching up in the game rather than leading the game,” said Pandya after MI dropped to eighth position on the IPL points table.
RCB, on the other hand, hold on to the third position on the table with three wins from four matches.
Pandya said that as a team other options has to be looked at in terms of batting and bowling before the next match.
“We have a couple of days off from here… To be very honest, now a lot of things need to be rethought. Definitely, it’s not working. A couple of games we have won the toss, but maybe we need to see what other options we have as a batting group or bowling group,” he said.
He added that both the batting and bowling units need to improve, with greater focus on the powerplay overs.
“Looking at the kind of wicket its playing, if we can bat well, that would be good. We still need to play good cricket, we need to bat well, we need to bowl well. If we do that, then irrespective of the toss, we will be fine.
“That’s what we are planning and talking about, how do we get some momentum in the powerplay. Because if you see, in both batting and bowling, we are kind of trying to catch up in the powerplay.
“A lot of options will be asked and explored. We will see what we can do in the next game.”
On Rutherford’s innings, Pandya said that the West Indian gave him that extra cushion in the lineup to change things according to the situation.
“When we got him (Rutherford), it was always exciting for us. We always knew the kind of potential and the kind of power he has.
“The way he batted gives us extra cushion and at the same time confidence that if we want to make some changes or see what the team requires, we can definitely do that because of the way he’s batting,” said Pandya.
RCB skipper Patidar lauded Virat Kohli and Phil Salt for the blazing opening stand that set up the innings for a massive total.
“The way Virat bhai and Salt started the innings, I think that kept us in the driving seat. Then a good cameo by me and Tim (David), I think that was a pure team effort.
“To be honest, people used to say that I love playing spin, but if someone asks me, I would say I love playing pace. And playing pace on this track, I think it’s a very good track to play a fast bowler. So I think I love fast bowling,” Patidar said.
