Legendary India National Cricket Team spinner Harbhajan Singh has lashed out at the Mumbai Indians (MI) coaches Mahela Jayawardene, Lasith Malinga, Paras Mhambrey, and Kieron Pollard following the team’s IPL 2025 exit.

Harbhajan Singh claimed that the excessive involvement of the coaches broke the spirit of the Mumbai Indians players and played a major role in the team facing a defeat in Qualifier 2.

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Mumbai Indians suffer heartbreak, Mahela Jayawardene comes under fire

MI had a good campaign in the Indian Premier League 2025, but their wait for the sixth continued as they suffered a heartbreak in the Qualifier 2 match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Mumbai Indians finished fourth on the points table and locked horns with Shubman Gill-led Gujarat Titans in the Eliminator. The 5-time champions delivered a brilliant performance in the match to move on to Qualifier 2 to face Punjab Kings, who were heading into the match on the back of a thrashing loss against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

Mumbai Indians showed a decent fight in the match and piled up 203/6 on the board after being invited to bat first, but with the ball, they had a poor day, and Shreyas Iyer’s Punjab Kings completed the run-chase in 19 overs to win by 5 wickets.

As MI faced exit, one person who faced heavy criticism was their head coach, Mahela Jayawardene. The former Sri Lanka captain has been seen as a little too involved in the game at times during IPL 2025 and tried to overpower skipper Hardik Pandya by hijacking the captaincy.

In the IPL 2025 Eliminator, a video went viral on social media in which Bumrah was seen ignoring and telling Mahela Jayawardene to calm down near the boundary ropes as he was giving way too many instructions.

A dressing room needs to remain calm and composed – Harbhajan Singh

Speaking after the match between MI and PBKS, Harbhajan Singh blasted the Mumbai Indians coaches, including Mahela Jayawardene and Lasith Malinga, and blamed them for the loss in Qualifier 2.

He said that there was a lot of chaos in the Mumbai Indians dugout during the match against the Punjab Kings, and the coaches showed a lot of desperation and were getting involved unnecessarily, which broke the spirit of the MI players.

“Look at the Mumbai Indians dugout. When they were leaking runs, there was way too much involvement from the outside. Coaches are telling a bowler like Bumrah what to do and what not.

“A dressing room needs to remain calm and composed. Coaches should only give advice. Don’t show desperation. So somewhere I felt that when this happens way too much, it breaks their spirit,” Harbhajan Singh said on his YouTube channel.

Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, these are big players – Harbhajan Singh

Harbhajan Singh added that the likes of Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya are champion players, and they know what to do to win the matches, but the coaches didn’t show faith in them.

“Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, these are big players. And when they are playing, let them do what they need to do to get the right result for the team. They have won many trophies together. They needed to be shown a lot more faith, but the coaching staff time and again was interfering and gesturing with their hands,” added the bowling legend.

Also, during an interaction on JioHotstar, Harbhajan launched an attack on Jayawardene and mocked him for not winning a single trophy as a player in the Indian Premier League despite playing 80 games.

“Whatever said and done Mahela Jayawardene has done well in his career, but he hasn’t won IPL trophy as a player. As a coach, he has done a good job for Mumbai Indians and built strong teams that have won. But in Qualifier 2 and Eliminator, a different Mahela Jayawardene was seen. He was quite irritated with the way the team was performing. Sometimes you need to trust your players and let them play freely,” Harbhajan Singh said.