This paper presents the implementation of metamaterial based superstrate inspired multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna with enhanced isolation and gain. Superstrate consist of novel hexagonal nested loop double negative (DNG) metamaterial is placed above the MIMO antenna and it exhibits isolation performance better than 24 dB over the entire WLAN band (5.68–6.05 GHz) with a remarkable peak gain of 7.98 dBi. Superstrate reduces the mutual coupling (MC) between the antenna elements by absorbing the near field component of the magnetic field. Reflection coefficient, transmission coefficient and radiation properties further confirm the performance of the proposed design for wireless applications. The prototype of the proposed design is fabricated and validated through measurement that shows good agreement with the simulation result. © 2019 Elsevier GmbH