IPL 2025: Mumbai Indians coach Mahela Jayawardene asked the team to be more ‘cruel’

With four defeats in five matches, former champions Mumbai Indians (Mi) Convergence is not yet found as they struggle to bury the demons of the previous Indian Premier League (IPL) season when they end in the lower part of the table. But coach Mahela Jayawardene is confident in the core of his squad that it is too late.
Mi lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 12 runs during a run-fest at Wankhede Stadium on Monday. The necklace pushed MI to number 8 on the table of points, while RCB rose to number three with its third win in four matches.
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Mumbai’s batting could not strike once again as a unit, while the team got a very important boost as a return of Premier Pesar Jasprit Bumrah, which bowled four over spell with 0/29 figures. On the other hand, the batting icon Rohit Sharma continued his poor form, scored only 17, and the choice of Suryakumar Yadav (28) was equal.
Asked if the game of XI is a warrant for any change, Mi coach Jayawardene said, “Not really … I still return to senior professionals, and all those people I have kept there, they have skills. It is just that we need to be a little more cruel and many times we are missing those one or two overs where we lose our discipline.
“Losing is not a big deal,” he said. “You start doubting yourself and sometimes a new face in such a situation can be even more difficult for that (player) without experience. People who experience, (how) know that (how) (how) to handle difficult situations and move forward to be mentally strong. This is something we do.”
However, Jayawardene admitted that their batting needs to be set on fire to leave an impact, and they need to bat during the powerplay and bowl much better.
“… Powerplay is a concern for us with balls and bat. In the last few games, we were leaking a lot of runs with the ball in the powerplay; we are not starting and losing wickets, especially in Vankhede,” he said.
Rohit has scores 0, 8, 13 and 17 in the four matches played so far in this IPL, and two of them have come against the left -handed pacers.
“I am sure RO (Rohit) is working on it; he is working hard and he is a very experienced player. I am sure that (Rohit’s struggle against left -handed speed) is not a matter; he was trying to give us a good start and he played some good shots.
“Yash (Dayal) bowled a good ball, it was late swing and full, got through the protecting RO. When you have played that long time, you sometimes need to give credit to the bowlers. I will not read too much in it, but it’s something that I believe that RO will work hard,” Coach said.
Chasing a total of 221 of RCB for 5, MI came close before falling and ended at 209/9.
Captain Hardik Pandya (42 in 15 balls) and Tilak Verma (56 for 29) performed their best, but failed to take MI.
“When Hardik went to bat, the conversation with me was () tried () tried and see if you can get three big overs and this is what he gave and the speed changed. Tilak also started going, so we were close, but not quite good,” Jayverdin analyzed.
“Emotions were very good for some time, but we should be realistic that we are not playing the best cricket that we can play.”