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Mumbai Indians (MI) star batsman Tilak Verma had a quiet start to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. He could score only 43 runs in the first 5 innings. Tilak showed what he can do by scoring a stormy century in 45 balls against Gujarat Titans. However, after this innings, he has once again been seen struggling with poor form. On Saturday (May 2), Tilak became the victim of Noor Ahmed after scoring 5 runs in 8 balls against Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

Tilak has scored 193 runs so far in IPL 2026 but if we exclude his century against Gujarat Titans, he has only 92 runs in his account in 8 innings. Tilak looks helpless in front of spin. In the current season, he has been able to score only 39 runs in 36 balls against spin and has been out 5 times. Whereas in front of Paes, he has scored 154 runs in 83 balls at a strike rate of 185.54.

Surya upset with pace

MI’s senior batsman Suryakumar Yadav has not been able to find his rhythm yet. He is getting starts but he has failed to play big innings. Surya has scored 183 runs in 9 innings at a strike rate of 144.09. During this period, only one half-century has come from his bat. When Surya had scored 20 runs in 12 balls against CSK, it seemed that he would end the drought of big innings but he gave an easy catch to Dewald Brevis on the ball of debutant Ramakrishna Ghosh.

Surya was out to Paes for the seventh time in IPL 2026. He has scored 75 runs in 56 balls against fast bowlers in the current season. During this period his strike rate has been only 133.92. That means he is neither able to score fast nor survive against Paes.

Due to the failure of big batsmen like Tilak and Surya, MI is not able to reach big scores despite a good start. Teams are easily operating with both pace and spin against them in the middle overs and are succeeding in controlling the run rate.