Veteran all-rounder Hardik Pandya’s future as captain of the Mumbai Indians could be in trouble after they finished 9th in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season as well. Hardik didn’t just let down the management with his poor show as a captain, but was also a disappointment as a player, both with the bat and the ball as well. However, Mumbai Indians batting coach Kieron Pollard said that captain Hardik’s leadership stint “has not gone as well”.
“From a leadership perspective on Hardik, yes, it has not gone as well as he would have wanted as an individual,” Pollard told reporters after the match. It might not have gone how we would have wanted as a management staff. But one thing you (should) know that we have tried each and everything to give him the best opportunity to lead the franchise, to do well.” Pollard said after the match.
“No one is going to sit here and put blame on point fingers. When you lose, especially, you have to look at it from a collective perspective. You win some, you lose some. But, at the end of the day, I wouldn’t question certain things,” he said. “He (Pandya) was trying; we all were trying, and it just didn’t work out for us. You sit, you talk, (and) see what is (for the) best. Never know what is going to happen. For us, let us just lick our wounds in (this) time and hopefully come back stronger in the 12 months,” he again shared.
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Kieron Pollard, however, didn’t deny that changes will be made to the Mumbai Indians roster before the next season, but ruled out making any rushed decisions as well.
“Right now, is not the time and place to talk about that. All these things would be sort of emotional decisions and thinking of every aspect of what is needed, everyone needs that time and space to go sit down, recollect, have a fair assessment as to where everything actually went wrong for us. That is where better decision-making is going to come about. If you sit here right now and say you need to do this, you need to do that, that would be irresponsible from a management perspective,” he further added.
He also said that resting Jasprit Bumrah from Sunday’s game was the “smarter option”.
“Jasprit is an individual who wears his heart on his sleeve and when you look at this match today, you’re going to get two points if you play (well). Then what’s that going to do for us if we finish on a win, finish on a high?,” Pollard again said.
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“Sometimes, you need to understand the player, understand what is necessary at this point in time. From a selection perspective, we didn’t know that today would have been right for him to play with the other guys on the bench.” “We have depth and we are building young guys, so trying something different. I don’t see anything wrong with that from our perspective.” Pollard again continued, “Let’s not look too much into that. It’s the last game of the season. It’s not that we could have qualified as well, and he is a prized possession for Indian cricket. Sometimes you have to take the smarter option.”
“It has been a season of what-ifs and overall disappointing for all of us. Everyone would have felt the same way. There’s no hiding from that. We weren’t good throughout the entire tournament. We weren’t able to string together wins and use the momentum when we got it. At the end of it, when you look at it rationally, we got the position that we deserved in terms of the type of cricket that we played throughout the tournament,” Pollard concluded.
