IPL 2026: What Ails the MI and the KKR?

 

At the beginning of this piece or rather any piece on the Indian Premier League-2026 that I’ve been intending to write for a long time and shelved again and again thanks to various reasons, I must address a concern of mine. It’s about the pitch at the iconic Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. My concern might be absolutely untrue or even preposterous, but address this I must. Have the curators tweaked the Wankhede pitch in some way like that in the suspected case of the Ahmedabad pitch in the ICC Men’s World Cup-2023 that eventually, as it is alleged, deprived an unbeaten India of the Cup? The pitch or the pitches on this ground have always been known to be sporting, giving opportunities to both the batsmen or the bowlers to excel and yielding exciting results with fighting totals. So, I was shocked when in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup earlier this year when India set a mammoth target of 254 runs in 20 overs and England nearly chased it down. Since then, in the IPL-2026 matches, the ground has been producing mostly 200+ runs and the opponents chasing those successfully. If indeed the pitch has been tweaked the said act is perfectly in line with the BCCI’s concentrated focus on producing high-scoring matches with the maximum of fours and sixes. Entertainment, after all! Anyway, this doesn’t directly relate to the subject of this piece and I’ll not dwell here on the possible adverse consequences of the boundaries-driven cricket extravaganza. 

Historically, the Mumbai Indians (MI) is known to struggle at the initial stage of the tournament on several occasions and then bouncing back and even winning the Championship. However, this time the franchise has already lost as many as six out of eight matches and need to win all their remaining six to stay in contention for the Play-Offs. And more significantly, most of the players of the MI squad are yet to reach forms of some consistency, be it their batsmen or the bowlers.

Starting with the captain Hardik Pandya, he’s not doing anything remarkable with either the bat or the ball. If a captain of a side is not able lead from the front his/her team suffers invariably. He was seen to be in tremendous ‘spirit’ after that Tilak Varma ‘revolution’ against the Gujarat Titans. But the franchise lost the very next match and then the one against Sun Risers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Wankhede last evening despite posting an imposing target of 244. Add to this the injury to former captain Rohit Sharma even as he seemed to be coming to look dangerous; opener Rickelton was not firing enough that made the team management keep on experimenting with the other options; Surya Kumar Yadav has been a disaster of unknown proportions so far and there’s no indication he’d find form soon, and actually there’ve been no consistent performances from the other batsmen; among the strike bowlers Trent Boult had to be rested in-between due to non-performance and couldn’t do any better after being brought in last night; Deepak Chahar who normally shows a lot of intensity bowling failed miserably again and again when given the opportunity; and it’s been a real pain to watch Jasprit Bumrah, particularly last night, for he seemed to have utterly lost his brutal accuracy and this may have something to do with the way he’s been utilized by the captain, apart from the overly batsman-friendly pitches. For me, MI is virtually out of the race for the Play-Offs.

Coming to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), I must say that for me the encounters of this otherwise competent franchise have proved to be almost unwatchable. Apart from being led by a non-performing and seemingly indifferent captain Ajinkya Rahane, the team looks devoid of any fighting spirit, resilience or application in batting or in bowling or in fielding. Their last two wins have largely been the result of the ‘lone wolf factor’, namely the do or die efforts of Rinku Singh in batting and in on-field catching. At the moment there seems to no other batsman or bowler who has the right kind of motivation and application and dedication to take the team forward and Rinku cannot be relied upon to carry on with incredible fireworks indefinitely. Narine has been inconsistent in spinning a web around the batsmen and as a huge surprise Varun Chakravarthy has also been largely ineffectual so far—a poor form that hit him during the T20 World Cup-2026. Having lost five of their eight matches so far, the KKR seems as well to be out of contention for the Play-Offs, at least for me.

Talking of the other franchises at this moment, top-ranked PBKS along with RCB, SRH and RR seem to be sure shots for the last four. However, led by another non-performing captain Riyan Parag, the RR could still be displaced any time; for there’re at least three dark horses who can still bounce back—namely the GT who can boast of a solid batting line-up and a lethal bowling attach, the DC who still has a chance even after not being able to defend a total of 264 against the PBKS and not being able to win a match after KL Rahul’s record-breaking individual score of 150, and of course, the CSK who can still give a fight, sitting on the back of a wonderful Sanju Samson, the opener who prominently wrote the final script for Team India on winning the T20 World Cup-2026.

Again, thanks to a non-performing injury-prone captain Rishabh Pant the LSG too seems to be out of contention for the Play-Offs.