After another underwhelming IPL season, Mumbai Indians are in need of healthy changes. It is high time the management came down hard on players whose personal interests and ambitions do not contribute to the benefit of the team. The next mega-auction is an opportunity for the franchise to correct mistakes made at the auction table, but the immediate need is to put house in order and restore normalcy in the locker room. Mumbai Indians managed to stay mathematically alive in IPL 2026 on Monday, but the writing is on the wall for the five-time champions as they face another season – the fourth in the last six years – without making the playoffs. The body language of the players and support staff reflects the long, painful summer the franchise has endured.A team that has struggled to just three wins from ten games won’t be helped by minute fine-tuning; a complete overhaul of the dressing room – which hasn’t been the warmest place since Hardik Pandya took over the captaincy from Rohit Sharma – is needed. Clearly, the management was happy to remain patient after the initial turbulence following the change of captaincy, but patience is not their best friend at this point as another wooden spoon finish looms in IPL 2026.
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Justin Langer finds positives in LSG defeat, praises Nicholas Pooran and backs Rishabh PantMI benefited from BCCI’s new retention policy ahead of the 2025 mega-auction, which allowed them to retain their ‘core’: Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma and Tilak Varma. Even other teams used the maximum retention slots, but MI were probably the only franchise that could sit at the auction table knowing that half of their playing XI had been sorted.So what went wrong with a team that boasts of superstars, leaders and four players who have led India at some point?“Team” is the key word here as the franchise has been found to be still navigating a restless dressing room after the change of captain, constantly struggling to present a united front. A team that prided itself on winning competitions out of nowhere has been missing a perfect “team performance” for a few seasons now. There were flashes of individual brilliance but not enough to add a sixth title to the cabinet.Even after the management made it clear that Hardik will be the captain for the foreseeable future, some individuals are either clinging to captaincy ambitions or pushing young players to take up the mantle. The senior player has been dealing with an undisclosed injury for several seasons and some are happy to take it easy, even if it means missing almost a month of competitive cricket. Constant rumors that the “core” group doesn’t get along hurts the team environmentOn paper, MI’s IPL 2026 camp has no dearth of superstars and utility players, but they have been exposed tactically as the think tank is still trying to determine their ideal Playing XI. Inconsistency from the “core” didn’t help either with constant injuries.Tilak, heavily projected as the future leader of the franchise, has just one season with over 400 runs in five editions. His good friend Suryakumar Yadav had a phenomenal 2025 but carried over his poor international form into IPL 2026 with just 195 runs from 10 innings. Two crucial middle-order pieces that weren’t fired didn’t help, nor did Hardik Pandya’s stunning comeback with the bat – 146 runs in eight innings.Rohit Sharma had a good start to the season before a hamstring injury ruled him out for almost a month. Yet his inconsistency is not recent; the franchise’s only true season of more than 500 runs came in 2013.MI takes great pride in retaining its players as long as possible, but with the game evolving at a rapid pace, the think tank needs to improve to stay one step ahead. Convinced of their methods, they entered last year’s mini-auction with a very small purse. They seemed happy with the players at their disposal and supported their strategies – a power play dominated by left-handed swing and one-stepping. However, reality hit them hard as the opposition batsmen dismissed the deliveries of Deepak Chahar and Trent Bouult with ease. Even Jasprit Bumrah’s championship disappeared because there was a lack of support for the world’s leading fast bowler.
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Which aspect of Mumbai Indians’ performance needs immediate attention?
The next mega-auction is an opportunity for the franchise to correct mistakes made at the auction table, but the immediate need is to put house in order and restore normalcy in the locker room. Major changes are needed now and it is high time the management came down hard on players whose personal interests and ambitions do not contribute to the benefit of the team.
