IPL: Down and out, are Mumbai Indians looking beyond Hardik for captaincy?

The die has been cast for Mumbai Indians, the five-time champions, as they lost their eighth game out of 11 so far and become the second team to be knocked out of any play-off chances in IPL 2026. The sense of despondency among the Mumbai Paltan, who began the season on a winning note at home, is understandable -  while the knives are once again out for the beleaguered skipper Hardik Pandya.

It’s been three seasons now that Pandya had completed the controversial trade-off from Gujarat Titans to the Mumbai camp again – with reports of an undisclosed sum of money changing hands over and above the transfer fees. While the first season in 2024 under him had been a disaster with the team finishing last in the table, they regrouped well last year to make the play-offs before slumping into inconsistency again this time.

After the 2025 season saw a rejuvenated Hardik after emerging as the MVP in India’s T20 World Cup triumph the previous year, much was expected of him after yet another critical role by him behind the Men in Blue retaining the crown last March. However, call it the fatigue factor (which has seen a number of the World T20 winning members enduring a poor IPL season) or any form of niggle, Hardik had been far from his best – scraping together 146 runs from the eight matches he played and only four wickets. 

The buzz on social media on Monday was that the captain had distanced himself from the franchise by 'unfollowing' them on Instagram and deleting the squad photos from his account. While it was not true as MI returned as one of his 'followed' accounts after a brief absence, informed sources reveal that the equation between the star allrounder and the management has entered an uncomfortable phase due to some non-cricketing issues. The last match in Raipur on Sunday, which MI lost narrowly in the last over to RCB, saw Pandya missing the third game on the trot owing to a ‘back issue,’ but it has set the tongues wagging.

‘’Hardik had developed a back issue – we will monitor it on a day-to-day basis,’’ said head coach Mahela Jayawardene after the defeat. The Sri Lankan legend, brought back into coaching operations from a global role after the MI floundered under Mark Boucher, was at a loss to explain the team’s early ouster.

‘’It’s difficult for me to sum up the season at this stage, but we were not just good enough. We were not good with bad or ball and we were not consistent,’’ remarked Mahela. A series of injuries including Rohit Sharma, Hardik and the lacklustre form of Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma (barring a century) did not help MI campaign – while what hurt them especially was Jasprit Bumrah suddenly losing his venom in the earlier part of the tournament.

‘’We still have a few games left and have to continue with the season,’’ said Mahela as their next game is against Punjab Kings on 14 May.  While the mild mannered chief coach was protective about the ‘core group’ in his team – an educated guess is that the team management may be looking for a change at the helm for the next season if not for the three remaining games as well. With Rohit Sharma possibly staring at his last couple of seasons in IPL and Surya suffering a prolonged drought with the bat, Tilak Varma’s name is being aired as an incumbent for the future.

For now, the best MI can hope for is a late push to finish at mid-table and then take a fresh guard for the next season!