We need to take some tough calls: Hardik Pandya

Skipper Hardik Pandya did not mince his words after the Mumbai Indians crashed to their fourth successive defeat in IPL 2026, warning about taking a few “difficult calls” and reminded his misfiring teammates of the need to take “ownership” of the team’s poor outings.

In their latest debacle, the five-time champions lost to Punjab Kings by seven wickets and are now languishing ninth on the table with just two points.  “To be very honest, I don’t have much to say right now. I think we really need to go back on the drawing board and see where are we lacking. Is it individuals? Is it as a group? Is it planning? We’ll just figure it out and see what we can do next,” said Pandya after another morale-shattering loss on Thursday night.

Indirectly, Pandya might have been hinting at the faltering show of MI seniors like Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Tilak Varma.

“No, I think we need to see, do we need to make some difficult calls or do we need to keep continuing and hope that we’ll turn things around. These are some harsh questions which eventually we need to answer and yeah, ownership has to be taken,” he said. Suryakumar has scored a fifty but his other scores have been 16, 6, 33 and 0 and Tilak Varma has a modest sequence of 20, 0, 14, 1 and 8.

The talismanic Jasprit Bumrah is yet to take a wicket in five games and has given away runs at 8.63 per over. 

However, Pandya credited the opposition for out-thinking them in all departments of the game.

“I think we need to give credit to them as well. The ball started reversing. In the second inning the dew came and it slightly got better but having said that, they just outbeat us. They bowled better, they batted better, they fielded better definitely and that talks to us again.

Punjab captain Shreyas Iyer, who made a 35-ball 66 in the successful chase against MI, said staying grounded has helped the side execute their plans with precision.

“Certainly confident and optimistic the way we have been playing. Also, we have our heads on our shoulder. I am glad that today we came out and got that victory,” said Iyer. He also praised the coming of age of Prabhsimran Singh, noting that the opener has consistently provided fluent starts and on Thursday, carried the team through with an unbeaten knock.

“He (Prabhsimran) has certainly raised up his bar, even though he was getting runs, he was giving us excellent starts, this year he has been more mature, match by match, he is getting more mature,” added Iyer.

Prabhsimran, who made an unbeaten 80 off 39 balls, said self-belief helped him overcome a lean phase in the Powerplay and take on the bowling more aggressively later in the innings.

“I was just believing in myself because the powerplay I didn’t get many balls to play. I think I played 6-7 balls in the powerplay. But then in my mind I thought that if I take a little longer, I will be able to play (better).

“So I kept believing in myself that I will do it and I did it. I just had this in mind that I will play the anchor,” added Prabhsmiran.