It has been three years since the Mumbai Indians signed Hardik Pandya and made him captain, replacing Rohit Sharma. One cannot really blame the five-time champions for showing faith in the all-rounder, considering how he won the Indian Premier League (IPL) in his first year as a skipper with the Gujarat Titans and then led the same franchise to the final next year. However, Hardik hasn’t been able to replicate that immediate impact with the Mumbai Indians since he rejoined the franchise in 2024.
In 2024, the Mumbai Indians finished bottom of the points table, and the 32-year-old was even booed at all venues as fans didn’t take kindly to Rohit being replaced. In 2025, the franchise improved, reaching Qualifier 2. On the other hand, the Mumbai Indians might have won against the Gujarat Titans on Monday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in the IPL 2026 edition, but the team has once again got off to an underwhelming start, losing four out of their opening six matches.
Looking at how Mumbai have been performing, former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar questioned Hardik’s captaincy credentials, crediting most of the Gujarat Titans’ success to team head coach Ashish Nehra. He also said that if Mumbai poached Hardik, then they should have also brought Nehra on board.
“Hardik Pandya to the Mumbai Indians was a very interesting decision. I think sometimes franchises make decisions that are newsworthy and put them in the spotlight, because ultimately it’s a commercial brand. You can see the kind of valuations franchises are getting. So it may not even be a sound cricketing call,” said Manjrekar on Sportstar’s Insight Edge podcast.
“Hardik Pandya had success with the Gujarat Titans, and that had a lot to do with somebody named Ashish Nehra. So maybe if you wanted Hardik Pandya, you could have also got Ashish Nehra with him,” he added.
‘Sensational’
The former Indian batter also reckons that Hardik was successful as the captain because he had a proactive coach around him who ran the show from the sidelines.
“Hardik Pandya, I believe, was brilliant because there was somebody next to him constantly with almost every move that he made on the field,” said Manjrekar.
“So it’s really not so much about Hardik Pandya, but the decision, whether it was a sensible decision or it was just somebody wanting to think out of the box a little bit and doing something a little sensational,” he added.
With the win over the Gujarat Titans, the Mumbai Indians moved to the seventh spot in the points table with 4 points from seven matches. Seven games into the IPL 2026 season, Hardik is also yet to get going with both bat and ball.