Former New Zealand pacer Simon Doull responded to a fan question recently where he was asked that if Mumbai Indians were to release one or some players from their team who they had retained ahead of IPL 2025 when the mega auctions come around again, he said that in case Hardik Pandya was not captain next season, he could be the one that MI release.
“My point will be, who’s your captain next year? If they are going to change something who is going to be the captain next season. If it’s not going to be Hardik Pandya, I think you release him. Only because I don’t know how he will go in an environment where he’s underperformed, his team has underperformed for 3 years. And his job goes,” Doull said in a video on Cricbuzz.
“It (losing captaincy) might free him up. It might not. It might make him feel like, I have failed. It could go one of each way. And if you do decide to retain, all those guys can win you tournaments. They are terrific players. Hardik, when fully fit, has been one of the best allrounders in the game and can win you games. My point is if he is not going to be captain, is he willing to take a backseat, put in the hard work and come back and be just the Hardik the great player again,” he added.
Pandya hasn’t had the best stints as MI captain with the 5-time champions finishing 10th in 2024 while qualifying for the playoffs in 2025. They, however, lost to Punjab Kings in the Eliminator last year. In the 2026 edition, MI are struggling at 9th in the table after losing 6 of their 8 matches with the latest defeat coming at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday where they failed to defend a 243-run target. Hardik himself slammed a 15-ball 1 but he has just scored 128 runs in the 7 matches he has played.
Ryan Rickelton’s whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen’s unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets. Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH. Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
