Former Indian batter Subramaniam Badrinath said that Mahela Jayawardene has been made the scapegoat for Mumbai Indians’ (MI) poor performance in IPL 2026. However, the franchise parted ways with Jayawardene as head coach after
two seasons as well. After an impressive playoff run last year, MI finished ninth and missed the playoffs in IPL 2026 as well.

Talking about this, Badrinath said on his YouTube channel, Cric it with Badri, “He did brilliantly with MI, and they won three titles under him. But he has been made the scapegoat for their recent struggles. What more could he have done? They had such a great team. Could he have taught Hardik Pandya how to bowl or Rohit Sharma how to play the pull shot or Bumrah how to bowl yorkers? They are all proven performers.”

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“Whenever a franchise wants to make a change, the coach often becomes the scapegoat. The same thing happened with CSK and Stephen Fleming. Both Mahela and Fleming have been made scapegoats. Both CSK and MI have lacked leadership for the last few seasons,” he further added.

Subramaniam Badrinath also stated that MI can appoint former Indian batter Rahul Dravid as their next head coach if they hand over the captaincy to Rohit Sharma as well.

“If Rohit Sharma is made captain, Rahul Dravid might be a good option as MI’s next head coach. They share a great relationship and helped India win the T20 World Cup,” Subramaniam Badrinath concluded.