Threat to Hardik Pandya’s captaincyImage Credit source: PTI
When Hardik Pandya made a sensational comeback to Mumbai Indians and took command of the team, he would hardly have thought that the most successful franchise of the league would be in such a condition. But the truth is that within just two and a half seasons, Hardik’s captaincy is now in danger. The performance of the team is continuously deteriorating and the level is falling in IPL 2026. In such a situation, the question is being raised whether Hardik will lose his captaincy in the middle of the season? Or will this be his last season as captain?
On the night of 23 April, when Mumbai’s wickets were falling one by one against Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium, the future of Hardik Pandya’s captaincy looked equally bleak. This was the 5th defeat of Mumbai Indians in 7 matches in the IPL 2026 season. Not just defeat, it was the team’s biggest defeat in IPL history at the hands of its biggest rival. The team could barely reach 104 runs. For the first time, Mumbai lost 3 consecutive matches at Wankhede Stadium. This was Mumbai’s smallest score against CSK in IPL.
Ever since becoming the captain, the condition of the team has been bad.
Hardik Pandya took over the command of Mumbai Indians in 2024. Since then, Mumbai Indians have lost the maximum 22 matches in IPL. Chennai Super Kings is at second place, which has lost 21 matches. However, a big aspect of this is that while Chennai Super Kings is going through a phase of change, most of the big players of Mumbai Indians are still a part of the team. In such a situation, Hardik is not able to run the team even with the players who have won titles many times, then this raises questions.
A big problem in this is the performance of Hardik himself. So far this season, he has neither batted nor been able to do anything in bowling. So far he has been able to score only 97 runs in 6 innings. While bowling, he has been able to take only 3 wickets, whereas he has given away runs with an economy of 12.66. Apart from this, his decisions are also under question.
Question on captaincy, will you be on leave now?
For example, after giving away 19 runs in his first over against Chennai, he came back to bowl and gave away 19 runs again. But when he needed to bowl in a pressure-filled situation in the 20th over, he handed the ball to young bowler Krish Bhagat, who was playing only his second match. Earlier in a match, when boundaries were required in the last overs, he himself came to the crease and could score only 15 runs in 17 balls.
These decisions are raising questions on Hardik’s ability. Also, due to the performance of young batsman Tilak Verma and seeing the future of the team in him, he is being projected as a contender for captaincy. Even Aakash Chopra has predicted that Tilak Verma will be the future captain and it will not take much time. So will Hardik lose his captaincy in the middle of this season? Or will this change happen only in the next season?
