Former India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin was left baffled by the Mumbai Indians’ (MI) decision to bring wrist spinner Mayank Markande against Rajat Patidar during their 18-run loss at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, April 12. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain scored a quick-fire fifty, including an onslaught against spin, to propel the team to a massive score.

Early into Patidar’s innings, in the 12th over, MI skipper Hardik Pandya brought Mayank Markande back into the attack. The wrist spinner had conceded 20 runs off his first over, and was up against the RCB skipper. After getting the strike from Virat Kohli, the right-handed batter smashed three consecutive sixes, including a rare reverse switch hit over point.

Markande ended up conceding 20 runs off the over once again as RCB raced away to 144-1 after 12 overs.

R Ashwin recalled a contest between RCB and SRH from IPL 2024, where Patidar struck four consecutive sixes off Mayank Markande’s bowling. He argued that bringing him into the attack made no sense at that point, especially considering the RCB skipper’s supreme ability against spin.

“Rajat Patidar is a monster hitter against spinner, and when he came into bat, you gave the ball straight to Mayank Markande. We have to understand what is going on in Markande’s mind. He had beaten him to a pulp in Hyderabad, and when Patidar came in, he was given the ball straightaway. Very very very very average, My head started spinning. This was the difference between 210 and 240. MI’s spinners gave 80 runs in six overs,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

Rajat Patidar scored back-to-back fifties, smashing five sixes in his knock at a strike rate of 265. Markande, on the other hand, recorded one of the most expensive spells in IPL history, prolonging his tough start to the season. The spinner has yet to take a wicket in the ongoing campaign.

R Ashwin opined that MI are struggling despite having a solid team, and barring a good run in IPL 2025, they do not have much to show for in recent years.

“This was an important game for MI, and RCB showed that why they are the defending champions. They had a very tough game against RR, but to bounce back like this, it is not easy. It is a bit surprising to me, MI have a squad, they have really good players, but they are just not able to get it right. It’s not happening for the first time, it has been happening for 2-3 years now,” Ashwin said.

MI have been on the hunt for their sixth title for the last 6 years, with their last triumph being the dominant run in IPL 2020 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Since then, they have qualified for the playoffs only on two occasions.

“They might have ended up with 260” – R Ashwin on Virat Kohli’s sluggish fifty in MI vs RCB IPL 2026 match

RCB batters had a field day as they made the most of some poor bowling and optimal batting conditions to be among the runs. Phil Salt and Rajat Patidar slammed quick-fire fifties while Tim David also chipped in with a valuable cameo towards the end.

However, Virat Kohli could not play as freely as his teammates, as he ended up with a 38-ball 50 with a strike rate of 131.58 in the high-scoring clash.

“There is no right or wrong in this, I think sometimes you will have a day in T20 cricket where the tempo will be like this, because of that, you are not able to accelerate. Today, Virat was not able to accelerate. If RCB were able to get a power hitter like David or Shepherd earlier, they might have ended up with 260. What happened today with Kohli can happen to anyone, it happened with Ruturaj as well,” Ashwin opined.

Virat Kohli was left frustrated with his own display, and holed out to the deep of Hardik Pandya’s bowling in the 15th over, a couple of deliveries after reaching the 50-run mark.