Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya (PTI Photo/Kunal Patil) Ravichandran Ashwin provided a detailed tactical breakdown of Mumbai Indians’ 18-run defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Wankhede Stadium in IPL 2026 while questioning captain Hardik Pandya’s decisions during the crucial stages of the chase. A major talking point in Ashwin’s analysis was MI’s decision to introduce spinner Mayank Markande early against Rajat Patidar, a move he said played directly to the RCB skipper’s strengths. Patidar, who scored a decisive 53 off just 20 balls, was particularly dominant against spin and shifted the momentum during the decisive mid-wicket. Ashwin also went back to Patidar’s past success against Markande in the earlier SRH vs RCB clash in 2024 to highlight his point about the match.He said, “This is not today’s scorecard, this is the SRH vs RCB 2024 match where Rajat announced that he is a spinner. He hit Mayank Markande all over the ground.” he said on his YouTube channel, referring to the previous IPL 2024 clash to highlight Rajat Patidar’s dominance against spin.He further added, “What is common here is that in that game too, Rajat smashed Markande for sixes and he did the same in this game. The thing is, Rajat Patidar against spin is a terrible batsman. When he came, you directly brought in Markande and that is very average captaincy. Markande went for 40 runs in 2 overs.” he stated on his YouTube channel. In his breakdown, Ashwin suggested that MI’s tactical approach allowed Patidar to settle into the crease immediately. Once Patidar got going, he quickly shifted into gear, hitting a hat-trick of sixes early in his innings and later stormed to a 17-ball fifty, ensuring RCB kept up the scoring even after losing Phil Salt and Virat Kohli. The match itself was a high-scoring thriller. RCB posted a formidable 240/4, built on a 120-run opening stand between Phil Salt (78 off 36) and Virat Kohli (50 off 38), followed by Patidar’s explosive 53 off 20 balls and a late breakthrough from Tim David. MI responded strongly through Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton before Rohit retired while Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya kept them in the hunt. However, despite Sherfan Rutherford’s unbeaten 71 off 31 balls in the death overs, MI fell short at 222/5 and lost by 18 runs. Concluding that the crucial phase of Patidar’s attack on Markande was the turning point, Ashwin said MI’s inconsistency in that match allowed RCB to take control of the match in the middle overs.
