The former India player Manoj Tiwary has criticised Hardik Panyda for his captaincy and his performances in the IPL 2026 season. He stated that Hardik Pandya should step down from the role and hand his captaincy over to Rohit Sharma. The Mumbai Indians have lost four games on the trot in this season and that is attracting a lot of negativity to their skipper as well.
“From where will ownership come? One has to look at oneself as well. You need to see how you have been playing. According to me, just because you are not having success this year doesn't mean the mistakes happened only this year. You need to look at the root cause as well. From 2015-2023, Rohit Sharma helped the Mumbai Indians win several trophies,” said Manoj Tiwary on Cricbuzz.
Manoj Tiwary calls on Hardik Pandya to hand over the MI captaincy back to Rohit Sharma with the team failing to match up to their lofty standards.#IPL2026 #MI #MumbaiIndians pic.twitter.com/FYZeGJf3Jd
— Circle of Cricket (@circleofcricket) April 17, 2026
Selection calls, bowling tactics and leadership debate take centre stage amid Mumbai’s slump
“Hardik shouldn't have promoted himself against the Punjab Kings. He scored 14 runs off 12 balls. Sherfane Rutherford just got five balls. If Rutherford had played as many balls, he would have hit 3-4 sixes. Hardik Pandya thought he could do it. Yes, he could have done it,” added Manoj Tiwary.
Manoj Tiwary had criticised Hardik Pandya for his decision to promote himself up the order in the game against Punjab Kings. Hardik is often that kind of captain that steps up for his team and he is always willing to make an impact. Even when he captained the Gujarat Titans, he promoted himself up the order and played some handy knocks for his side. But in this case, Sherfane Rutherford was in fabulous touch as he smashed the RCB bowlers for sixes all around the park in the previous game. So, Manoj Tiwary stated that it would have been better to send Rutherford ahead of the skipper. Hardik Pandya’s power-hitting abilities is widely recognised but it would be important to consider his present form and the position of the team in the points table.
“ And secondly, there is no point in giving Jasprit Bumrah the second over when you are not giving him the first. Deepak Chahar just isn't able to swing the ball; Shreyas Iyer showed outstanding captaincy, whereas the Mumbai Indians' captaincy was very weak. I think that if a solution is needed, Hardik should step back from the captaincy and hand the responsibility back to Rohit. When you removed Rohit, you did an injustice,” Manoj Tiwary concluded.
Whilst the points stated by Manoj Tiwary are true, it could also be inferred that there is a little bit of emotion mixed. Deepak Chahar is a splendid new ball bowler and he was the trump card of MS Dhoni in the powerplays in his time at CSK. So, Hardik Pandya giving him the new ball is undoubtedly a justified move but the form of Deepak Chahar can’t be blamed on the skipper. Speaking of which, Jasprit Bumrah himself hasn’t been able to find his rhythm as in the last 19 overs he has bowled, he hasn’t picked up a single wicket. There was a huge rebellion when Rohit Sharma was sacked off captaincy and the Mumbai Indians fans haven’t moved on.
The Mumbai Indians are going through a rough patch and responsibility is to be shared amongst each player in the dugout. It is pointless to play the blame game as the Mumbai fans will have to back their new captain. Hardik Pandya was able to lead the dark horse side, Gujarat Titans to victory in 2022. So his captaincy skill is proven beyond doubt but he will have to rethink his decisions and formulate a proper strategy against the Gujarat Titans in their next match.
