Hardik Pandya (Image credit: BCCI/IPL) NEW DELHI: When will Hardik Pandya return to action? How is his injury? When will he come back? These are the questions fans are asking after the Mumbai Indians captain missed his second consecutive match in IPL 2026. Mumbai Indians were without their regular captain for the second consecutive match with Suryakumar Yadav leading the side in Hardik’s absence.Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene gave an important update on Pandya’s injury after MI suffered a two-wicket defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur.
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Mahela Jayawardene reflects on MI’s disappointing IPL 2026 campaignThe loss also confirmed five-time champions Mumbai Indians’ elimination from the playoffs. MI became the second team after Lucknow Super Giants to be eliminated from the tournament.Speaking after the match, Jayawardene revealed that Hardik is struggling with his back and is currently undergoing treatment with the medical team.“Yeah. Hardik had a back problem which we tried to fix but it’s not resolved yet. So the doctors have been working on him. He couldn’t train for the last few days so we didn’t want to take any chances without knowing exactly. So we’ll see. It’s day by day. See how he feels. And then we’ll decide,” Jayawardene said.Mumbai Indians have endured a poor IPL 2026 campaign so far, playing 11 matches, winning 3 and losing 8.Jayawardene knew he would face tough questions in the post-match press conference.
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What is the main reason for Mumbai Indians’ poor performances this season?
“It’s been a disappointing season. We had our chances but we weren’t good enough. We weren’t consistent enough with the ball or the bat and it showed on the edges. We were probably two or three wins away from making the play-offs but we didn’t get those wins and today was another classic example of falling short,” said the Sri Lankan legend.
