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Mumbai Indians are reportedly all set to ax a senior batsman from the franchise. After finishing 9th in IPL 2026, the team is looking to hit the reset button and get back to the dynasty that won 5 IPL titles in 8 seasons.
The first step in this reset appears to be to appoint a successor to captain Hardik Pandya. Pandya has led Mumbai Indians to bottom positions in two of his three seasons as captain.
Now, reports indicate that MI are moving on from him and he may even be transferred to another team.
Tilak Verma supported becoming captain
According to a Times of India report, Tilak Verma has been nominated to take over as MI captain in place of Hardik Pandya. Verma has previously captained Hyderabad, India A and South Zone.
Tilak Verma has spent his entire IPL career at Mumbai Indians since joining for the first time in 2022. Since then, he has also become a mainstay of the Indian T20 team, culminating in him playing a key role in India’s T20 World Cup title on home soil earlier this year.
Over the years, Verma has been a consistent scorer for Mumbai Indians, scoring at least 340 runs in every IPL season he has played. In 2022, 19-year-old Verma was playing his first IPL season, yet he finished as the team’s second-highest run-scorer that year as they finished last.
Since the start of 2022, only Suryakumar Yadav has scored more runs for MI than Tilak Verma. Overall, Verma has scored 1,858 runs in 68 matches at an average of 36 and a strike rate of 145, playing mostly in the middle order, but moving up and down the order as required.
According to TOI report, a senior Mumbai Indians player has thrown his support behind Verma becoming the captain next year. “During the mid-season review, a senior player suggested that young India batsman Tilak Verma, who has been with MI for the last few years, is the ideal man to be appointed captain next year,” a source said.
Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah can be considered for captaincy.
Verma is only 23 years old and will still be one of the youngest IPL captains if he takes charge next year.
At present, Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah are also in the race to become the captain. Yadav is India’s current full-time T20I captain and won the T20 World Cup earlier this year.
He has captained Mumbai Indians on an interim basis since 2023 and took over the responsibility for three matches this year when Hardik Pandya was unavailable. This year, with both Hardik and Suryakumar unavailable, Bumrah also took over the captaincy of Mumbai Indians for one match.
Bumrah has led India in both Tests and T20Is.
Mumbai Indians ready to phase out a senior batsman
No names were mentioned, but TOI also mentioned that Mumbai Indians are creating a new role for a senior batsman.
“The management is also likely to phase out a senior batsman and give him a ‘different’ role. Basically, MI needs a reset, and the refresh button needs to be pressed as soon as possible,” the source told TOI.
Without mentioning any names, this could point to former captain Rohit Sharma, who is still with the team despite being sacked from the captaincy in 2023. His performance with the bat has been declining in the last few years. In IPL 2026, he scored only 283 runs in 9 matches at an average of 35 and strike rate of 157.
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