Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya (Image credit: BCCI/IPL)
NEW DELHI: Mumbai Indians have endured a disappointing IPL 2026 campaign. The five-time champions, who won all their titles under former captain Rohit Sharma, are already out of the play-offs after managing just four wins and eight defeats in 12 matches.One of the main talking points of Mumbai Indians’ poor season has been captain Hardik Pandya’s form, who has struggled with the bat. Pandya has scored 146 runs in eight matches at an average of 20.85 and a strike rate of 136.44. With criticism mounting on both his batting and captaincy, former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has come out in support of the all-rounder, saying it is unfair to pin the blame on him alone.“I wouldn’t rate his captaincy at all this year. Honestly, when you have seasons like that, it’s quite unfair to blame the captain. Nobody turned up, the team didn’t turn up. And for Hardik to take the blame, it’s asking a bit much. He was there at Gujarat Titans and had two fabulous seasons,” Ashwin told ESPNCricinfo.Pandya returned to Mumbai Indians in 2024, this time as captain, replacing Rohit Sharma. Prior to his move to Gujarat Titans in 2022, Pandya was part of the Mumbai Indians set-up from 2015 to 2021. He led Gujarat Titans to the IPL title in their debut season in 2022 and then led them to the final again in 2023.Ashwin believes that replacing a highly successful captain like Rohit Sharma will never be easy. Rohit led Mumbai Indians to the IPL titles in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020 and established himself as one of the most successful captains in the league.Pandya’s appointment as MI captain in 2024 also drew strong reactions from fans, with the all-rounder facing boos during the season.“So clearly, as a leader, he did something directly there (Gujarat Titans). And when he came back to Mumbai Indians, he had to deal with it quite a lot. It’s not easy to replace the incumbent Indian captain in the white ball like Rohit Sharma. Five IPL titles, won the T20 World Cup and there’s a lot of Ashwin fan coming into it, You’ve from the country. Ashwin replaced him.“You’ve got to have a thick skin to survive social media these days. I think he’s been through quite a bit in his personal life too. I wouldn’t judge his captaincy too much because the bowling has also leaked runs in every direction. Every time six or seven runs go over, 15 runs come. So what do you do as a captain? Sure, he made a few calls that were at short notice. you don’t want to bowl the 20th over on the leg side from this side, with the fielding at the wrong end, so these things can pile up one after the other,” he said.Mumbai Indians failed to qualify for the play-offs in 2024 after Pandya took charge. In 2025, they bounced back to reach Qualifier 2 before losing to Punjab Kings. However, the 2026 season again ended without a playoff berth for the franchise.“The captaincy is often the result of how your team looks. That’s why I believe when you have a good season, don’t give too much credit to the captain. And when you have a bad season, don’t pin it all on him,” Ashwin said.
