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RCB vs MI, IPL 2026: The curious case of Hardik Pandya is growing by the day with no proper clarification from the MI franchise. Is he dropped or is he sacked as captain or is he carrying an injury - not much is known. Following the loss against RCB on Sunday in Raipur, MI coach Mahela Jayawardena broke silence on criticism of benching top Indian stars. While struggling to sum it all up, Jayawardena did not mention Hardik's name. Admitting that the season was ‘disappointing’, Jayawardena reckoned the MI side were not good enough. 

‘We had a lot of injuries’

"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 Lankan icon 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.

"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," he concluded.