Despite having the best of the world players in their team, Mumbai Indians finished at ninth position this year in the IPL 2026 tournament. Led by skipper Hardik Pandya who was traded from Gujarat Titans, the heavyweight team which looked a power squad on paper, failed to execute itself on the ground and followed an early exit in the tournament. In the recent times, a new development following the disastrous win percent of skipper Hardik Pandya, has emerged which claims that during the middle of the 2026 IPL season, former MI captain, Rohit Sharma had backed the Hyderabad youngster to lead the team next year, during the second half of the tournament. News sources also suggest that the relationship between Hardik Pandya and Rohit Sharma never really recovered after the latter didn't pick the all-rounder during the mega auction in 2021.

Reports suggest that Sharma believed that due to injury concerns, Pandya is ‘unlikely to bowl again’, and there was little merit in retaining him solely as a batter. However, in 2022 the MI management was surprised to see Pandya not only bowling but making a significant impact in the team, taking them to two finals and winning the tournament in 2022. In 2023, the management decided to get Pandya back who would only come back as a captain and this development was unknown to Rohit Sharma who had been the MI captain and was also believed to be leading the Indian Team in 2024 T20 World Cup Finals.

Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya unlikely to continue to be in same franchise again

According to news portals, it will be unlikely that Sharma and Pandya would represent the same franchise from the 2027 tournament. Some cricketing circles have also claimed that Rohit Sharma’s camp used public relations’ channels to undermine Pandya’s captaincy in 2024. Journalists are also confused as to why the management would pay heed to Sharma’s opinion, in the presence of visible deficiency of trust between both the parties. Questions also arise that if indeed things are not fine between the management and the player, why would they take Sharma's backing into consideration and lose out on public trust by changing their captains within a span of five years.

Rumours have also begun floating around, regarding Hardik Pandya’s farewell from MI as the player had unfollowed several of his Mumbai Indians’ teammates including Sharma. The focus is also being placed on Rohit Sharma's uncertain future in IPL due to his deteriorating form as Sharma had not been able to make a significant impact from the past few years. Cricket articles also claim that, it is not long before, Sharma steps down from the team because of form concerns.