Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya participated in an interactive session with MI fans and declared his ultimate goal for IPL 2026.
After sidelining 5-time IPL winning captain Rohit Sharma, Mumbai Indians appointed Hardik Pandya as the captain of the team in 2024. Pandya played for Mumbai Indians between 2015 and 2021 and won four titles with them, with the most between 2015 and 2020, when MI won their last title.
As captain, Hardik Pandya also won the title in the debut season of his former franchise Gujarat Titans. He then led the Titans to another final in 2023 and then managed to take Mumbai Indians to Qualifier 2 last season before losing against Punjab Kings.
Winning IPL for the sixth time is the last dream – Hardik Pandya
The MI all-rounder declared that his ultimate goal is clearly to win the sixth title for the team. Mumbai has not won any title in the last half decade and the captain wants to send it off with another title. This will be Pandya’s sixth title overall and fifth with Mumbai Indians, if he manages to win it this season.
“The ultimate dream is to win the IPL for the sixth time,” the Mumbai Indians captain said on Sunday.
“At the same time, it’s about building a legacy. Mumbai Indians already have an incredible legacy, but I still remember when I was a new kid – the passion, the hard work and how the team supported me and helped me grow,” Hardik Pandya also said that the legacy he saw at the MI den is something he would love to pass on to future generations.
He further added, “Moving forward, I want that culture to continue – where players step up, work hard and play the best kind of cricket. I want us to represent the best cricket Mumbai Indians have ever played and the best cricket I have ever played. That’s the legacy I want to leave for myself and the franchise.”
Hardik Pandya dreams of having a World Cup like atmosphere in IPL 2026
Hardik Pandya played a big role in India’s World Cup win in 2026. He bowled the second last over against England in the semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium and defended the total with an economical spell. He said that he would love to recreate the atmosphere of Wankhede Stadium that day.
“The kind of atmosphere we created for the India vs England semi-final at the Wankhede was incredible. When the fans support you like that, it boosts the morale of the whole team – and I expect exactly the same from them.
“The fans are the voice of the team. They stand by you in both good and bad times and that is what the MI platoon have always done. They should be very proud of that,” the captain said.
MI captain lauds his scouting expertise
Hardik told how important it is for Mumbai Indians to play good cricket and work hard. He recalled his youth days when MI scouts had dropped him from a Ranji Trophy game and then the entire management supported him in his most challenging times.
“I was just a batsman who had spent my entire youth – 17, 18, 19 years – doing the same thing: working hard. If someone had asked me to run 12 innings, I would have run 15.
“Then, suddenly, someone noticed me. A year later, I was playing Ranji Trophy. During one of those games, Mumbai Indians’ scouts were in the stadium – not even to see me. But that’s the beauty of it. Luckily, I did well in that game,” he said.
He praised the scouting system of Mumbai Indians, which gave India some big talents like Ishan Kishan, Jasprit Bumrah, Tilak Verma, Suryakumar Yadav and others.
“It says a lot about their scouting system. They weren’t there specifically for me, yet they recognized that I had Some? Special and longer periods may be part of their setup.
“This is what Mumbai Indians scouting is all about and it’s fantastic. You don’t see that very often,” Pandya said.
Also read: ‘Say no to captaincy’: Former Indian opener urges Hardik Pandya to step down from MI captaincy
