On Thursday, CSK played one hell of a match, where in MI’s home, the Wankhede Stadium, they embarrassed the hosts by a mighty 103 runs. After Chennai scored 207, with Sanju Samson getting his second ton of the season, all Mumbai could manage was 104, as they succumbed to their fifth loss of IPL 2026. This only raises the question, what is MI doing strategically so wrong, to be losing so badly this year?
Just talking about this match, there were so many decisions that raised the eyebrows.. why is Danish Malewar opening the innings for MI? Why did Krish Bhagat come on to bowling in the death overs, including the 20th over? Why didn’t Hardik Pandya complete his quota of overs? And then some larger questions.. why don’t MI have a decent replacement for Rohit Sharma the opener? Why are MI failing in the powerplay? The list just goes on..
MI’s problems started at the auction
The veteran’s trap: MI, over the past many years, has been guided by four stalwarts of the team — Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, and Rohit Sharma, and just retaining them, set them back by INR 67-68 Cr. That means, the chances of getting a big player is negligible.
Three out of the four have been poor in the season, while Bumrah has been economical, but has failed to pick up wickets regularly. Surya has scored 157 runs so far and averages only 22 and his SR has been only 142. Rohit had scored 137 runs in 4 matches, and is injured for now, and no one knows, when will he be back. Pandya has scored 97, and has been rather disappointing. In 6 innings, he averages 19 and SR is at 140.
The senior four of MI are yet to fire in IPL 2026. (Image Credit: AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool via Alamy)In their last match vs GT, where Tilak scored a ton, Hardik managed to score only 15 from 16 further raising doubts. On bowling front, Bumrah has only two wickets in 7 matches. Pandya has 3 in 6, while his economy has been 12.66. So, not the best returns here.
Where is the next-age line of batters: Mumbai just don’t have the kind of hitters at the top of the order, who can play attacking cricket like other teams. Take for instance — CSK have Sanju Samson (SR-178), Mhatre (177). SRH have Abhishek Sharma (215), PBKS have Priyansh Arya (248), Prabhsimran Singh (171), RR have Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (220) and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Instead MI are struggling with their top order, which already features Rohit, Ryan Rickelton (155), Danish Malewar (40), and (162). The batters, except for Tilak Varma now, are not firing at all.
Powerplay an issue in batting and bowling
MI, while batting, have struggled mostly during the PP, their first match being the only exception. Against KKR they scored 80/0 and won that encounter. But from there on, they have returned with scores of 41/2 vs DC, 60/5 vs RR, 62/0 vs RCB, 48/2 vs PBKS, 46/3 vs GT, and 29/3 vs CSK.
In bowling, it is quite the opposite. Against KKR they gave away 78/1 in PP. With DC it was 46/2, vs RR 89/2, vs RCB 71/0, vs PBKS 61/2, vs GT 45/3, and vs CSK it was 73/2. So, all in all, the problem is quite evident here.
Batting in powerplay has been a challenge. (Image Credit: AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool via Alamy)The tactical mistakes
Too many changes: Mumbai have played as many as 20 players from their squad this season, which only shows, they are far from getting their ideal combination. For eg, if Ryan Rickelton was doing fine with 137 runs in 5 matches, what was the need to change him? Now they have gotten a very young Danish Malewar into the XI, who had no T20 experience before this.
Not playing utility players: For some reason, MI did not start the tournament with last year’s find, Ashwani Kumar. In two matches alone, the lad has picked up 6 wickets. Last year, he had picked up 11 in 7. Instead, they went with Deepak Chahar, whose economy this year has been over 13. Last year too he was ordinary, picking up 11 in 14 matches. Boult was played for three games, when his economy was over 12.
Holding back Bumrah: There have been instances where a weapon like Bumrah was not used from the first over itself. In the KKR match, Hardik brought on Bumrah only in the 5th over. In the DC match sanity prevailed and he was given 2 overs inside the PP; Against RCB he bowled his first in the 4th over. It was only in the GT match for the very first time, that he bowled the first over the innings, which also fetched Bumrah his first wicket of the tournament.
MI vs CSK poor reflection
All these mistakes, at some level, were visible in the MI vs CSK encounter as well. Pandya opted to bowl first, that only aggravated their problems.
Poor over management: It just seems like, Pandya is missing the key while distributing overs to his bowlers. While he rectified his prior mistake of not giving the first over to Bumrah, but somehow he decided to not give the 3rd over to the veteran. Nonetheless, Ghazanfar did pick a wicket, but he was removed right after that.
What also doesn’t make sense is, he went for 19 runs in the first over, but continued to bowl the third over, where again 19 were scored. And lastly Krish Bhagat was brought in the 16th over, when Sanju was batting well over 50. The mistakes did not stop there as Bhagat’s last over fetched 16 runs when Pandya had his overs left.
Over distribution by the skipper has looked faulty. (Image Credit: AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A. via Alamy)Batting order an issue as well: For now, MI batting doesn’t look flexible. It is a straight template, where the need of the hour looks ignored. While chasing 200, as soon as Mumbai’s first wicket fell, they should have sent in Tilak Varma, who had scored a ton vs GT; their best batter needs to play most balls. Tilak came in when Mi were 11/3.
Surya and Tilak did get a partnership, but seems like the messaging wasn’t clear from the dressing room; one batter had to go for the runs. Then, Sherfane Rutherford should have come ahead of Pandya; scored 71 from 31 vs RCB, and maybe could have delivered under high pressure.
What is MI doing strategically wrong in IPL 2026? Inside Sport India.
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