Hardik Pandya may have missed out on his team’s most recent matches this month, but sharp layers of criticism over the Mumbai Indians’ underwhelming IPL 2026 season have unfailingly fallen on him. MI lost seven of the nine matches under Hardik before he was sidelined by an injury earlier this month.
In the last three matches in his absence, Mumbai have won two matches under two different captains, Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah. While Suryakumar led in a win and defeat against Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Bumrah oversaw Thursday’s win over Punjab Kings in Dharamsala.
The scrutiny over Hardik’s captaincy has only heightened in recent weeks with the rumour mill floating stories of internal rifts in the MI camp yet again. Despite the underwhelming skipper Hardik found some support from his former India teammate, R Ashwin.
“Honestly, when you have seasons like this, to pin the blame on the captain is quite unfair. Nobody has turned up. The team has failed to turn up and for Hardik to take the blame on himself is… you’re asking him to do a little too much. He was there at Gujarat Titans. Had two fabulous seasons. So clearly as a leader he did something right there,” Ashwin said on ESPNcricinfo.
Since Hardik took charge as MI skipper, replacing Rohit Sharma, the five-time champions have finished in the bottom half twice besides the Playoffs finish last year.
“When he returned to Mumbai Indians, he had to deal with quite a bit. It’s not easy to replace an incumbent Indian captain, white-ball captain, such as Rohit Sharma. Five [six] titles in the IPL. He’s won a T20 World Cup. And Hardik comes and replaces him. You’ve got a lot of fandom going around in the country. You should have a thick skin to survive the social media these days,” Ashwin added.
Ashwin pinned the poor bowling as the primary reason for Mumbai’s downfall besides some questionable calls from Hardik.
“Bowling has leaked [runs in] every direction. Every single time an over is bowled for six or seven runs, in comes a 15-run over. So what do you do as a captain? And sure, he’s made some calls that have been debatable. [But] captaincy is the result of how your team is making you look. So which is why I believe when you have a good season, don’t give too much credit to a captain. When you have a bad season, don’t pin it on him,” Ashwin said.
