Bursting onto the field at Wankhede, Punjab Kings crushed Mumbai Indians by seven wickets. Bowling first, Arshdeep Singh tore through with three dismissals. Then came fireworks – Prabhsimran Singh stepped up, slamming fifty on the board. Right behind him, Shreyas Iyer followed suit, matching strike for stroke. Victory tasted sharp as Mumbai stumbled again, now down four losses in a row. Their campaign limps along, only one triumph secured across the season so far in IPL 2026.
Later, walking off the field, Hardik Pandya wore a tight face – his voice low when mentioning tough choices coming before facing Gujarat Titans on April 20. Though results keep slipping away, he paused mid-thought: maybe it’s not just one person, perhaps the setup fails somewhere, or plans never really stick. From there, without naming names, he said each player must stand up on their own two feet. If things stay like this, someone will have to leave, even if nobody wants that
To be totally upfront, there isn’t much I can add at this moment. Maybe stepping back is the only way forward – taking another look might show us what’s missing. Could it be someone specific? Or how we work together? Perhaps even how things get laid out ahead of time. Answers will come by working through it, then deciding where to go after that, Hardik mentioned during his interview afterward.
“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 added.
Analysing Hardik’s presentation
Out of nowhere, Hardik let a few words slip that seemed aimed at teammates such as Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma. Right now, both are stumbling through rough patches in the current season. Scoring just 106 runs across five games, the Indian T20 skipper hasn’t found rhythm either. Meanwhile, Tilak stands on 43 from those same appearances. Things haven’t clicked for them lately. Maybe without saying it straight, Hardik hinted at this during his comments after play ended.
Maybe he tweaks the lineup. It could get curious if Mumbai swap in those two, seeing how both Suryakumar and Tilak lifted the World Cup with India. Then again, Suryakumar wore the armband back then.
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