Former Pakistani cricketers Kamran Akmal and Basit Ali turned to shaming the Mumbai Indians’ management for their poor show, and also considered snubbing Hardik Pandya from captaincy.
The Mumbai Indians are the five-time champions in the history of the IPL, yet their struggles have been significantly noticed by cricket fans all over the world in the past few seasons. The MI team won their last title in 2020 and has failed to reach the finals since then.
Mumbai are currently placed in the 8th position in the points table and have just managed to win 2 of their seven matches in the season. They have lost five matches this season, and most of them are at their home ground.
Basit Ali backs Mumbai Indians to return to prime form amid IPL 2026
Mumbai Indians continue with their roller-coaster campaign in this season of the IPL. Having won the first match, they broke their decade-long jinx from 2012, but then lost four matches in a row. They then defeated the Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad for the first time since the introduction of the team in 2022.
Former Pakistani player Basit Ali claimed that MI are now on a losing streak; they will bounce back and improve their position in the points table. Basit Ali made a hilarious claim on the YouTube channel ‘The Game Plan.’
He claimed, “Mrs Ambani jab unke bache ko gussa ayega na tab danda denge bhai chalo ab jeetho match ab out nehi hona sow karo sow, (The sons of Mrs Ambani when they punish them and ask to win matches and score centuries).”
Kamran Akmal blames Hardik Pandya for MI’s misfortunes in the IPL
In the same show, another former star cricketer from the nation, Kamran Akmal, questioned why the Mumbai Indians have not considered moving Hardik Pandya from the captaincy role.
“I don’t understand when Mumbai will axe Hardik as the captain. They are at the bottom of the table. I feel Hardik should just play as a player,” said Kamran Akmal.
“Look at the performance of MI. Look at the performance of Hardik Pandya himself. He is an all-rounder and is among the best players. If you take out the captaincy load on him, his batting and bowling will improve,” Akmal added.
Can MI bounce back from 8th position in IPL 2026?
The Mumbai Indians are currently far behind in the points tally with just 4 points after 7 games in this season. Any team to qualify needs to secure a minimum of 14 to 16 points, depending on the performance of their opposition.
The Hardik Pandya-led side are halfway through and will have to win almost every match from the remainder of their games. Out of the 7 games, MI will have to win at least 6 matches to secure their position in the top 4.
However, as per the statistical data, MI have managed to qualify for the playoffs in 2023 and 2025, but have failed to reach the playoffs in 2022 and 2024, so a similar result might complete a hat trick for them in 2026.
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