Ashwin, K Srikkanth urge Hardik Pandya to ‘quit MI captaincy’ as IPL 2026 looms

Is there a captaincy crisis at the Mumbai Indians? Could be! MI captain Hardik Pandya has lately been urged to 'voluntarily' step down from his position and hand over the baton to the recently-crowned T20 World Cup-winning skipper Suryakumar Yadav. As the IPL 2026 looms, questions and discussions around MI’s captaincy structure, which sees two T20 WC-winning captains, SKY and Rohit Sharma, play under Hardik, who has failed to guide his team to a title since taking over in 2024, are raised. While Mumbai finished 10th on the table the year he took over the MI captaincy, they made it to the playoffs the next season but failed to get through.

Krishnamachari Srikkanth, the former chairman of the national men’s selection committee, identifies this captaincy situation at the Mumbai Indians as ‘funny’, further urging them to solve the internal politics within the camp to have everyone on the same page. Saying from the ‘outside view’, Srikkanth said SKY has to be the number one choice for MI’s captaincy, something another former Indian spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin, also echoed separately.

“It’s a funny situation. Hardik Pandya is a good captain. But, yes, they have two T20 World Cup-winning captains playing under him now. It’s some internal policy within their setup that they have to sort out. From the outside, the obvious choice should be Suryakumar Yadav. But this might be a franchise policy,” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.

Urging Hardik to step up to the scene and step aside from his role, while willingly handing over the captaincy hat to SKY, Srikanth said, “It’s a strange situation as Hardik played under Rohit and Surya to win India the World Cup. Otherwise, Hardik should himself say no to captaincy and allow Surya to lead. If Hardik himself says this to the management, things will get resolved. He should say, ‘Let Surya lead and I’ll support’. That’s one way of solving it.”

‘Ashwin feels the same’

It’s not only Srikanth but also Ashwin, who retired from this cash-rich league earlier, who feels the same about the captaincy chatter at the Mumbai Indians. Pointing out how this is a concern within the camp, Ashwin said, “Suryakumar Yadav not being the captain of the Mumbai Indians is a no-brainer.

“He (SKY) should definitely be the captain. And the fact that it isn’t happening, I’m sure, is a bit of a concern,” Ashwin said on his YouTube show Ash Ki Baat.

Meanwhile, Pandya will lead his MI unit for their marquee tournament opener against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday (Mar 29).