Mumbai Indians’ current IPL 2026 campaign is slowly turning into a nightmare and now the pressure on captain Hardik Pandya is clearly increasing. Now former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has questioned Hardik Pandya’s impact with the bat this season.
Mumbai Indians have so far lost four of their first five matches in the ongoing IPL 2026 and are now at the bottom of the points table. MI’s biggest setback came against Punjab Kings (PBKS) at the Wankhede Stadium, where they failed to defend the mammoth total of 195 runs.
Hardik Pandya is under pressure as Mumbai Indians’ nightmare IPL 2026 season continues
Well, it is not just about losing the match. The bigger problem is that their key players are not performing at all. Apart from their inconsistent batting, MI’s bowling has been a major concern this season. He has already scored 972 runs in five matches.
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Hardik Pandya’s own performance has also not been good. The Indian all-rounder has so far scored only 81 runs and taken just 3 wickets. For a player of the caliber of the MI captain, this is not enough, especially when his team is struggling and needs him to lead from the front.
Aakash Chopra questions Hardik Pandya’s match-winning impact
As MI is set to face Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on April 20, Aakash Chopra candidly said that he doesn’t remember the last time he saw Pandya play a match-winning innings for the franchise. He said that now the time has come for the captain to take full responsibility and make MI win the matches.
“Now you have got the batting order right. I won’t talk about Surya because he played many match-winning innings last time, but Hardik, I don’t remember when was the last match-winning innings you played,” Aakash Chopra said in a video on his YouTube channel.
He further added, “We have seen a lot of good cameos, but a match-winning 70 or 80 runs where you single-handedly win the match, Hardik is capable of that. If you repeatedly score less than that, you think it is time Hardik does what he can do, because you are capable of doing that.”
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Hardik Pandya’s captaincy is under fire as Chopra feels Mumbai Indians need a fearless approach
Questions are also being raised about his captaincy, as Hardik has not been able to utilize match-winning stars like Jasprit Bumrah properly, and he is wicketless so far in the tournament.
However, the cricket pundit suggested that Mumbai Indians now need to do something different. He believes that players like Sherfane Rutherford should get better chances in the batting order to give them the firepower required at this level, as another defeat would end their playoff hopes.
Chopra signed off by saying, “They need new ideas and freshness and a bit of a fearless approach, and Sherfane Rutherford should bat a bit higher up the order. All this is necessary because the truth is that Mumbai Indians, the five-time champions, are currently ranked 10th.”
Notably, Rohit Sharma, who missed the previous match due to a hamstring injury, accompanied the MI team to Ahmedabad, but his availability for the GT match depends on the final fitness assessment before the game on Monday.