What's Mumbai Indians' ‘elephant in the room’? Coach Mahela Jayawardene addresses biggest concern before IPL 2026

After India's triumphant T20 world Cup 2026 campaign, the focus shifts to the Indian Premier League, starting in 10 day's time with defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad in the opening encounter on March 28. Ahead of the 19th season. Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene addressed five-time champions' biggest concern before the ball gets rolling at the Chinnaswamy stadium.

One of the two most successful franchises in the IPL, Mumbai Indians have had a hard time getting over the line in their first game of every new season. Ahead of IPL 2026, Jayawardene addressed the same, stating the focus of the management is how to get over the line in campaign opener.

“The elephant in the room is the first game for us, right?” Jayawardene, a former Sri Lankan captain and a former Mumbai Indians cricketer himself, told a select audience at a franchise event on Wednesday. “So my focus is that first match, how do we get over the line,” added the 48-year-old.

In the past 18 seasons, only four times (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012) Mumbai Indians have been able to record a win in their first game of a season. In fact, since 2013 till the previous season, Mumbai Indians have never won the first game. They won IPL in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020.

“I am also a part of that many years now. I am going to really focus on that first game for us and then get through that and then to get a good start to the season, rather than us catching up. We are good at doing that but I want to do that in a different way if possible, So that we have that flexibility of trying different combinations as well,” added Jayawardene.

Shardul Thakur, Mayank Markande, Allah Ghazanfar, Naman Dhir, Raja Angad Bawa, Robin Minz, Raghu Sharma, Mayank Rawat, Danish Malewar, Mohammad Izhar and Ashwani Kumar were the players who joined the camp on the first day. The likes of Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, who were a part of India's T20 World Cup 2026 triumph are yet to join the squad. So is Rohit Sharma.

The first training session opened with a structured fitness and conditioning block, with the S&C team putting players through their paces with movement drills, agility work, and fitness assessments.