Ravichandran Ashwin has questioned Hardik Pandya’s captaincy calls after Mumbai Indians suffered an 18-run loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their IPL 2026 encounter on Sunday. The veteran spinner was particularly critical of MI’s bowling strategy, arguing that using Mayank Markande against Rajat Patidar backfired badly, and he pointed to how Patidar punished the matchup with ruthless power-hitting.
Ashwin targets the Markande vs Patidar decision
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin highlighted a past example from SRH vs RCB in 2024 to underline his point. He referred to that game to show how Patidar’s hitting style can overwhelm a bowler when the plan is too predictable.
- Ashwin said the 2024 SRH vs RCB match was the one where Patidar “announced” himself as a spin hitter, adding that he struck Markande for four sixes within a single over.
- He noted that on Sunday, the same kind of punishment arrived again: Patidar sent Markande over the ropes with three consecutive sixes from the 11th over.
- Ashwin said the sequence of events felt similar to the earlier contest—he claimed the first ball was handled by Virat Kohli for a single, and after that, the batting script played out in the same dominant fashion.
In Ashwin’s view, Patidar’s strengths against spin are well known, and he felt MI’s decision to go back to Markande immediately was not tactically sound. He described Patidar as a “monster” against spinners and criticised MI for giving the ball to Markande straight away when Patidar was set to attack.
Why Ashwin believes the pitch and plan helped RCB
Ashwin also argued that the conditions did not support the kind of spin-control MI were relying on. He pointed out that even Mitchell Santner, another spinner in the MI camp, conceded a large number of runs.
- Ashwin suggested the real swing factor was the difference between typical outcomes—he referenced a gap of “210 and 240” as the context for how the match played out.
- He cited Markande’s figures as “two overs, 40 runs” on Sunday.
- He claimed the spinners together conceded 83 runs in the match, and he said Santner also went for 43.
From there, Ashwin went further into the tactical angle. He felt MI’s bowling approach gave Patidar enough time to settle early at the crease. Once Patidar started finding boundaries, Ashwin said the momentum shifted quickly, with Patidar hitting a hat-trick of maximums early in his innings. Ashwin added that Patidar then moved on to a 17-ball half-century, showing how fast the chase of control turned into a demolition.
Prior criticism of captaincy and the match scoreboard
Ashwin’s sharp comments about Pandya’s leadership are not new. Ahead of IPL 2026, he had publicly backed the idea of Suryakumar Yadav taking over as MI’s skipper.
In the game itself, RCB set a target of 241. Mumbai Indians, despite a blistering unbeaten knock of 71 off 31 balls from Sherfane Rutherford, were limited to 222/5 in their 20 overs. Suyash Sharma chipped in with two wickets as MI fell short.
Earlier, half-centuries from Phil Salt (78), Rajat Patidar (53), and Virat Kohli (50) powered RCB to 240/4, providing the platform for their eventual 18-run win over MI.
