Hardik Pandya Absent, Mumbai Indians Coach Responds To ‘Politics’ Of Benching Top Indian Stars

Mumbai Indians coach Mahela Jayawardene attended what was probably the most difficult press conference of the season, as the five-time champions were officially eliminated from the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 playoffs race on Sunday. MI did well to post a challenging total of 166/7 on a tricky wicket, but RCB were able to chase down the target on the final ball of the match. As the result confirmed Mumbai’s exit from the tournament, Jaywardene had to face some tough questions, including the ‘politics’ of benching some of the struggling senior stars. When asked during the press conference about what went wrong for the franchise this season, Jayawardene struggled to sum it all up.

“The season is disappointing. We’ve had our opportunities, but we were not good enough. We were not consistent enough with the ball or the bat, and that showed in the margins. We were probably two or three wins away from being in the same group of contenders to get into the playoffs, but we didn’t get those wins, and today was another classic example where we fell short,” the Sri Lankan legend said.

“It’s difficult for me to sum up a season right now; I have to give it some thought and figure out exactly what happened. But yeah, we were not good enough with our skills and execution this season,” he added.

It isn’t like the Mumbai Indians to shuffle their squad every other game, but this campaign saw constant chopping and changing. However, Jayawardene explained that most changes were forced.

“I don’t think it was chopping and changing. What probably you guys didn’t know is that we had a lot of injuries and a lot of niggles-guys getting injured or being unavailable. So, those were mostly forced changes. Tactically, we would have changed very few during the season. I would have loved to have our main core guys consistently out there. But there are no excuses. I think we had a quality squad. It’s just that we had to put our hands up and say that we were not good enough overall. We just need to continue to play good cricket. The message to the boys is to continue to do that,” he said.

The Debate Over Benching ‘Core’ Indian Players

While skipper Hardik Pandya‘s absence from the game was labelled as a ‘back spasm’ issue, several players were backed by the management despite a poor run of form. One of those players is Suryakumar Yadav, the team’s designated vice-captain, who scored only 195 runs in 11 matches this campaign.

When Jayawardene was asked if benching some of the out-of-form senior players had become a ‘political decision’, he ruled it out. The former Sri Lanka captain said that he saw how hard the core group was trying and gave them his full trust and confidence.

“I don’t think it is,” Jayawardene said when asked if it became a “political decision” to bench out-of-form senior players. “When you know the quality, you know they’re also trying to do their best. If I knew it was something to do with a lack of effort, I would have spoken to them, but the commitment and the effort they’re putting in is unbelievable. With Ro getting injured and coming back to bat the way he did-all that sums it up. The core group is quite valuable for us; you can’t just keep changing. We went with the trust and the confidence that we had in them. There was no reason for us to sideline them because they just came from a World Cup, and they had a really good World Cup, winning it and all that. As a unit, we haven’t been good enough.”

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