Hardik Pandya missed the Mumbai Indians’ (MI) crucial match in the IPL 2026 season. Last night, at the Wankhede Cricket Stadium, MI defeated the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) under the leadership of the stand-in captain Suryakumar Yadav and kept themselves in the title race.
The Mumbai Indians are among the most successful teams in the Indian Premier League. But, from the last three seasons, with Hardik Pandya as the captain, the team has failed to perform according to their reputations. In this season, MI’s chances of qualifying for the play-offs are pretty thin. Amid the poor form, a large part of MI followers are asking the team management to remove Pandya from the leadership role.
Wasim Jaffer did not want to blame only Hardik Pandya
Former Team India opener Wasim Jaffer says that it will be wrong to blame only Hardik Pandya for the team’s struggling period, as in this season, there are many players in the team who have not performed according to expectations, which has affected the team’s growth in IPL 2026.
Jaffer points out that the ongoing season has already past it’s half-way mark, so there is no chance to see a change in the leadership role in the Mumbai Indians.
They have underperformed: Jaffer
“All these decisions are taken after the tournament. Nobody thinks about it mid-tournament. Mumbai Indians’ journey is alive just mathematically; they are also almost out of the tournament,” Jaffer said in his YouTube video.
“They have underperformed, but you cannot say that this team played badly because of Hardik Pandya. Individual players also have not played well, and there have been injury issues as well. Rohit got injured at the wrong time, and Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, and Trent Boult struggled for form,” he added.
Will Pandya play in the RCB vs MI IPL 2026 match in Raipur?
It was reported that Pandya missed the match against the Lucknow Super Giants because of a back spasm. Though there was not much information about the condition of the MI skipper. After the match, Ryan Rickelton was asked about Pandya’s injury. The opener of MI said that he was not aware of the seriousness of the back spasm.
“I don’t know when he is expected to be back. I found out this afternoon that he had back spasms. I don’t know the extent of the injury or how bad it is. I am not sure how he is feeling, but I am sure that he will be with us again as we head to Raipur this week,” Ryan Rickelton told the media.
As of now, whether Hardik Pandya will feature in MI’s next IPL 2026 match is not clear. MI is scheduled to take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru on May 10 at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium in New Raipur. Ahead of the match, the franchise in Blue is ranked 9th in the 10-team league with 6 points from 10 games and with a net run rate of -0.649.
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