IPL 2026: ‘We’ve struggled so far, but will play for pride’ Mahela Jayawardene

Mumbai Indians MI began their IPL19 campaign on a winning note outclassing Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets at Wankhede on March 29 However since then the fivetime champions have witnessed a massive dip in performance and are out of the Playoffs race well before Sundayrsquos final league match on their home ground vs Rajasthan Royals RRMIrsquos head coach Mahela Jayawardene however remains optimistic that his team will play for pride and their fans when they face RR at the WankhedeESA kids in attendanceldquoIt performance was not good enough The consistency and execution in certain phases of the game were not there We struggled and that has been the story for us The last game vs RR is an important home game Wersquove got the ESA Education and Sports for All initiative as wellMahela Jayawardene PicIPLAll the kids will be here supporting us so therersquos a lot to play for not just priderdquo Jayawardene said during the prematch press conference on SaturdayThe starstudded MI squad comprises Indiarsquos T20 World Cup winners mdash MI skipper Hardik Pandya 172 runs and four wickets Suryakumar Yadav 210 runs Tilak Varma 356 runs and pacer Jasprit Bumrah four wickets mdash but all have struggled for form Jayawardene insists that playing for the country and for an IPL franchise are altogether different tasksldquoItrsquos not fair just to bring those four guys but as a group a lot of the guys havenrsquot been able to perform consistently Yes they came from a very highlevel World Cup But what you have to understand is that how you play for your national team and how you play for the IPL franchise sometimes itrsquos different because the personnel are different The roles can be different also how you want to go about it So they had to switch it up Therersquos nothing wrong with the effort they put in off the field in training and conversations we had with them Itrsquos just that they were not able to go out there and execute in the middlerdquo Jayawardene a former Sri Lankan skipper explainedRR on 14 points after 13 gamesRR who are on 14 points from 13 games and need a win to enter Playoffs will hope to replicate last monthrsquos 27run win over MI in a rainaffected match in Guwahati RRrsquos Mumbai boy Yashasvi Jaiswal starred with a matchwinning unbeaten 77 off 32 balls while teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi smashed 39 off 14 including a firstball six off BumrahIt will be interesting to witness the contest between a struggling Bumrah and the inform opening pair of Sooryavanshi and Jaiswal2017Rohit Sharmarsquos average against RR mdash his lowest against any opponent in IPLOneNo of games MI have won against RR in their last four meetings at WankhedeTwoNo of centuries for Yashasvi Jaiswal in IPL mdash both have come against MI