Hardik Pandya is an IPL-winning captain. Only a few in Indian cricket can claim to have that tag. Yet, Pandya’s return to the Mumbai Indians fold has not been very successful.
In his first year, Pandya was booed by MI fans for replacing Rohit Sharma as skipper. In IPL 2025, the five-time champions MI entered the playoffs but failed to reach the title clash. In IPL 2026, they have lost six out of eight matches. Their IPL 2026 playoff race now faces a must-win situation, and even that may not be enough for the Pandya-led side to progress.
“My point would be: who is your captain next year? If they are going to change something, who is going to be the captain next year? If it is not going to be Hardik Pandya, release him. Only because I don’t know how he will perform in an environment where he has underperformed, his team has underperformed for three years, and then his job goes,” Doull said.
When asked if Pandya can rediscover his form with the extra burden of captaincy, Doull said: “It might free him up, it might not. It might make him feel, ‘I have failed.’ It could go either way. When fully fit, Hardik has been one of the best all-rounders in the game. My only point is, if he is going to be the captain, is he willing to take the backseat, put in the hard yards, and just be Hardik-the great player-yet again?”
A premium all-rounder in world cricket in the white-ball formats, Pandya has not been able to hit top-notch form in IPL 2026 so far. In seven matches, he has scored 128 runs at a strike rate of 152.38. With the ball, he has taken four wickets in seven games.
Meanwhile, Pandya admitted that his bowling resources are stretched but stressed the need to find solutions under pressure, conceding that Mumbai Indians are falling short of their own high standards this season after a six-wicket loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad in an IPL match on Wednesday.
Despite piling up a mammoth 243 for 5, Mumbai Indians still ended up on the losing side as Sunrisers Hyderabad chased down the target with eight deliveries to spare, even as their ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah endured an off day, conceding 54 runs in his four overs and going wicketless.
The loss left Mumbai Indians languishing on four points from eight games, while Sunrisers Hyderabad climbed to third spot with 12 points from nine matches.
“I think this season we don’t have much option, we really need to see what all differences we can do. I won’t put my bowlers under the bus. I think as an overall unit, we have not been able to do what exactly Mumbai Indians stands for,” said Pandya when asked how he plans to address his bowling attack after the bowlers failed to defend a strong total.