Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra slammed the Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya for the social media ‘stunt’ that he did a few days ago. Chopra called the entire fiasco ‘immature’ and said that any case of rifts and disputes should be handled internally. Notably, a few days ago, Pandya unfollowed the Mumbai Indians, and his teammates, Suyakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma on Instagram. As the rumor went viral on social media and led to backlash from fans, the MI skipper followed the franchise again, but not his teammates.
There were reports that Pandya expressed his displeasure of being sidelined by the team for a few games by unfollowing them after their last-ball defeat to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Not only this, but the star all-rounder also reportedly removed the collaborative posts, fueling rift rumors and a leadership shakeup within the team. Several sources suggested that the team wasn’t happy with the way Pandya led the side, though few others opined that the franchise management remains supportive of his captaincy despite enduring a disappointing campaign.
As the entire drama caught eyes of fans and cricket experts, cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra shared his views on the same. In an interview with Filmygyaan, he said, “Whoever does it, I find it immature. Even if there is a rift between two people or teammates, things shouldn’t be put out on social media. It is because things get better eventually but later, you would feel that embarrassment for doing things like this.”
Aakash Chopra reveals what went wrong with Mumbai Indians in IPL 2026
The former batter also opined on what he thought went wrong with the franchise in the IPL 2026 that led to their early elimination from the playoffs race. He said, “Before the season, I had already said that Mumbai Indians is one team which is ready for their sixth title.” “It is because we all have a perception that half of the tournament is already won at the auction. If a team has been picked carefully, then only two factors need to be worked upon, form and fitness.”
“Multiple things have gone wrong for MI. We can start with bowling, earlier it looked like everything was fine since they have names such as Jasprit Bumrah, Boult, Deepak Chahar, Ghazanfar, Mitchell Santner. Hardik Pandya is himself a bowler and this is a very good collection of bowlers. But the bowlers didn’t just turn up. They were so poor to begin with that it looked like no matter how much you score, it wouldn’t help.”
Apart from it, he also pointed out batters' poor form including that of Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma and Rohit Sharma’s injury that led to a poor campaign for the five-time IPL winners.
