Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya admitted his team was outplayed by Punjab Kings at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, in the ongoing IPL 2026 on Thursday. MI posted 195 runs on the board after Quinton de Kock scored a fine century (112 off 60 balls) but PBKS registered a comprehensive seven-wicket win with 21 balls to spare.
Prabhsimran Singh scored an unbeaten knock of 80 runs off just 39 balls, whereas Shreyas Iyer continued his rich form, scoring 66 runs off 35 balls. Singh had the rub of the green on his side as he was dropped by Jasprit Bumrah when he was on 11.
Pandya said they need to go back to the drawing board and come back stronger after four losses on the bounce.
Hardik Pandya said after the loss, while talking to the broadcasters, “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 we are lacking. Is it individuals? Is it as a group? Is it as planning? We’ll just figure it out and see what we can do next. I think we need to give credit to them as well. The ball started reversing.”
He added, “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. 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.”
Mumbai Indians will next take on the Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, on Monday.

