Mumbai Indians (MI) have made a great start to their IPL 2026 journey with a confident defeat of Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium. Can they convert this early momentum into their sixth IPL trophy-winning moment? The question lies with the franchise, which has 5 league trophies in its cabinet and has experienced a lot of ups and downs in the last few seasons.
MI got its fifth and last IPL glory in 2020. Since then, the team has struggled to maintain consistent good performance season after season. Despite several setbacks in the past few seasons, the team’s head coach Mahela Jayawardene did not worry much about the past.
Will Mahela Jayawardene change Mumbai Indians’ strategy in IPL 2026?
In the last five years, Mumbai Indians have made the playoffs only twice and have finished at the bottom of the points table twice in 2022 and 2024. Ahead of the Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Capitals match, the head coach was asked if he is troubled with the team’s performance graph over the last few years.
The Sri Lankan cricket legend said in the press conference that the tournament becomes more challenging with 10 teams. Despite tough challenges, the team has qualified for the playoffs twice in the last five years, which is a good sign for Jayawardene.
“10 teams makes it an even tougher competition. But I think in the last 5 years, if I’m not mistaken, we were in the playoffs 2 or 3 times. So that means we had opportunities at the last minute.”
“I don’t know how to answer it properly. In a competition like this, you have to take one game at a time and go through the process. As a team, we know we have performed well consistently over time,” the Mumbai Indians head coach told reporters ahead of the MI vs DC match.
Mahela Jayawardene mentioned that while MI won five titles, some teams are yet to get their first trophy. The former cricketer confidently said that the team should trust the process without taking any leaps and the result will come automatically.
Results will come on their own: Mumbai Indians head coach
“We just have to continue to trust that process and continue to play good cricket. And we’ll get there. And we’ve been successful by doing the same things. So I don’t see why we need to do anything different.”
“But as long as we keep pushing ourselves to our limits in every game and have the same attitude on and off the field to become a better team, a better franchise, I think the results will follow,” the coach said.
He further added, “Instead of putting ourselves under pressure at the beginning of the season. Saying we haven’t won it for 4 years. But some teams haven’t won it forever. So we’re not getting into that. But with all due respect, we just thought we’d trust our process and work on ourselves how we need to go about it.”
Which teams have not won a single IPL trophy yet?
It is noteworthy that both MI and Chennai Super Kings franchises have 5-5 IPL titles. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have won it three times and Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Titans have all won it once each.
In contrast, Delhi Capitals, Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants are yet to open their accounts in terms of IPL trophy wins. DC looked amazing last season, however, faltered towards the end of the tournament.
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