Ravichandran Ashwin has defended Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya, stating that blaming the captain for the franchise's poor performance in IPL 2026 is completely "unfair" because the entire team failed to perform. Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Ashwin highlighted that high-profile stars did not deliver, making it unreasonable to pin the entire blame on Pandya’s leadership. According to Ashwin, a captain's tactical decisions are completely dependent on player execution, meaning public blame has been unfairly single-targeted. Ashwin noted that MI's bowling attack constantly leaked runs from both ends. Whenever an over was restricted to 6 or 7 runs, a 15-run over instantly followed.

Top marquee players failed to anchor matches. Jasprit Bumrah only managed 3 wickets across 12 games. Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav struggled with consistency, putting together just 195 runs in 11 innings. Ashwin explained that captaincy is simply a reflection of how the team makes a leader look. He argued that managers shouldn't get all the credit during winning seasons, nor all the blame during bad ones. "I wouldn't review his captaincy this year at all," R Ashwin said on ESPNcricinfo TimeOut. "Honestly, when you have seasons like this, to pin the blame on the captain is quite unfair. Nobody has turned up. The team has failed to turn up and for Hardik to take the blame on himself is... you're asking him to do a little too much.

Ravichandran Ashwin defends Hardik Pandya against internet trolls

Ravichandran Ashwin has strongly condemned the online abuse against Hardik Pandya, labeling toxic fan armies and social media smear campaigns as a "disease" and a "plague" affecting Indian cricket. Across multiple statements on his YouTube channel and cricket conclaves, Ashwin called out internet trolls for using fake news, paid PR mechanics, and rage-baiting to target the Mumbai Indians captain

“You've got a lot of fandom going around in the country. You should have a thick skin to survive the social media these days.”

 

Discussing the online abuse faced by Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin stated on ESPNcricinfo TimeOut that contemporary cricketers require an exceptionally "thick skin" to endure the toxicity. Ashwin argued that blaming Pandya for Mumbai Indians' poor IPL 2026 performance is unfair, citing the immense pressure of replacing a popular captain and systemic team failures.