Mumbai Indians along with Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings, the three mighty powers of IPL have started the season low. Whereas CSK has recovered a bit since the last two games, KKR is yet to win a match and MI has just won the first game of the season and 3 losses back to back. DC, RCB and PBKS has defeated MI back to back and the team looks clueless. MI has been clueless in powerplay whereas most teams are scoring 90+ runs, MI has just put on an average of 60-65 in first 6 overs. Also Surya Kumar Yadav’s slack of form since T20 World Cup campaign has put them on backseat in middle overs. All bowlers are also going costly, Hardik Pandya out of rhythm and Bumrah is yet to take a wicket.
Mumbai’s dominance erasing and continuing their bad patch since last few years is not taken well by MI fans pushing them to critically analyze the game and some rivals trolling the situation.
Some netizens said they have no idea why Hardik Pandya is not taken seriously as captain:
Idk why no one takes Hardik Pandya seriously. Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma are looking so tired. More power to the other players of Mumbai Indians. https://t.co/7oFHvi14Gm
— MUFASA (@ketan__0013) April 16, 2026
It’s simple Hardik Pandya hasn’t been able to use so many top players at Mumbai Indians. He succeeded at Gujarat Titans largely under Ashish Nehra. Now reality shows Nehra is winning with Shubman Gill at GT, while Hardik with a super team is struggling.
— klaus (@bantersaurusCF) April 16, 2026
One fan posted that MI still have not found replacement of Kieron Pollard:
Keiron pollard replacement never came and it shook up mumbai indians badly
— subramanyam (@subashakella) April 16, 2026
Netizens are asking as to why the captaincy is clueless and almost everyone looks like having no clarity of roles:
There was no captaincy, no tactical changes. Things were running on mechanical mode. No dialogue between Hardik and Bumrah or any other players. This was not Mumbai Indians that we have seen over the years. Telling this because I witnessed this at Wankhede. What is your say ?
— Pratik Doshi (@pratikdoshi_90) April 16, 2026
MI fans couldn’t control the grief of such a status:
This is not the Mumbai Indians we grew up watching 💔 pic.twitter.com/dDNiXtHoLL
— RO¥ (@iamroy_x) April 16, 2026
Netizens seem to miss Rohit Sharma Captaincy
White ball captaincy is the toughest Rohit Sharma was the reason behind Mumbai Indians 5 titles Not everyone can win even with a super team Hardik Pandya’s ego has ruined this team to the core It wasn’t the Mumbai Indians management it was Rohit Sharma’s vision that won trophy
— Crickchess (@Munjal_6526) April 16, 2026
PBKS maintains the dominance in IPL 2026
One of the strongest and balanced side of IPL 2026 is PBKS, they are undefeated and rightly so! Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy has been top notch so is Punjab’s clarity of roles and balanced side.
Starting with the consistency of Prabhsimran and Shreyas with their willow to Xavier Barttet, Vijaykumar Vyshak and Arshdeep’s bowling prowess, Punjab is just dominating the season. Even though Quinton De Kock who was included in the MI squad as a replacement for injured Rohit Sharma, just continued his SA20 form, scoring an incredible 110* and Naman Dhir, with a 50+ effort, was not enough. The other team crumbled, putting up only a 196 for PBKS to chase. PBKS, as usual, chased it down easily with Shreyas Iyer’s 66 off 35 and Prabhsimran’s excellent touch scoring 80* off 39, totalling destroyed MI in their own backyard.
Even in the post-match, Hardik Pandya said that the team really needs to look deeply into what issue they are having and for sure, the dew came and the second innings pitch got easier for chasing, but PBKS was miles ahead of them in batting, bowling and fielding and thus they won. Let’s see where MI finishes this season in the table.
