File photo of Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya. New Delhi: Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya continued his training at full throttle and spent over three hours at the Reliance Corporate Park on Tuesday. Hardik missed the team’s two matches against Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in IPL 2026 due to back spasms and is unlikely to join the squad for Thursday’s match against Punjab Kings in Dharamsala.While MI continues to claim he is recovering from a back spasm, the intense training session – of which he has uploaded several videos on social media – is sure to raise eyebrows. Is there more to it than meets the eye? TimesofIndia.com reported that all was not well in the dressing room and Hardik’s absence from the event raises some pertinent questions.
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Mahela Jayawardene reflects on MI’s disappointing IPL 2026 campaignThe five-time IPL champions arrived in Dharamsala from Chandigarh on Tuesday afternoon, but neither Hardik nor stand-in captain Suryakumar Yadav traveled with the batch. Suryakumar was recently blessed with a baby girl and apparently left for Mumbai along with Hardik and a few other players right after Sunday’s match in Raipur. The rest of the detachment moved to Chandigarh and then continued on to Dharamsala.It remains to be seen when Suryakumar will join the team as he joined on the day of the match against RCB. The franchise hopes to have him back with them closer to the game against PBKS.Mumbai Indians are in the midst of a season to remember, sitting ninth in the points table. The remaining matches give them an opportunity to not only test their bench but also rest some of their superstars who have been putting in stunning performances.
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Suryakumar and Tilak Varma, apart from a century and a half, had ordinary outings with the bat and Bumrah deserves a rest after fighting a lone battle in this edition. Head coach Mahela Jayawardene continues to back his ‘main players’ and it seems the time has come to test the faces that can serve the franchise consistently in the upcoming editions.
