‘Hand back captaincy to Rohit Sharma’:Manoj Tiwary criticises Hardik Pandya’s leadership after Mumbai’s defeat to Punjab

The start of the IPL 2026 season has been disappointing for Mumbai Indians, one of the most successful teams in the league’s history. Led by Hardik Pandya, the team has struggled to find form and consistency, despite defeating Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their campaign opener. Former India batter, Manoj Tiwary, criticised Hardik’s leadership and urges to bring back Rohit Sharma for the rest of the season to lead the side. Mumbai Indians suffered their fourth consecutive defeat after losing to Punjab Kings at the Wankhede Stadium. The loss has raised serious concerns about both team performance and leadership. After the match, Hardik Pandya openly admitted that the team needs to take responsibility and improve quickly. However, his comments have sparked criticism from former players and experts as well. As pressure builds, Mumbai Indians will need quick improvements to turn their campaign around and stay in contention for the playoffs. The five-time champion side has won only a single match so far in this season, standing at ninth spot with two points and net run rate of -1.076 in the points table.Meanwhi,e Mahela Jayawardena, reponds to tough media questions in post-match press conference. Manoj Tiwary criticised Hardik Pandya’s leadership Former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary strongly criticised Hardik Pandya’s leadership and approach. In a conversation with Cricbuzz, he said, “From where will ownership come? One has to look at oneself as well. You need to see how you have been playing. According to me, just because you are not having success this year doesn’t mean the mistakes happened only this year. You need to look at the root cause as well. From 2015-2023, Rohit Sharma helped the Mumbai Indians win several trophies.” “In 2023, there was no trophy. In 2024, there was no trophy, and the chances of the same happening are high this year too. I think the captaincy is weak. I don’t want to be harsh. But Hardik is not leading the team the way it should be. It’s very important to be proactive as a captain,” he further added. Call to bring back Rohit Sharma as MI’s captain Tiwary also suggested a major change in leadership, asking Hardik to step down and hand back the captaincy to Rohit Sharma. He said this could help Mumbai Indians regain their winning momentum, given Rohit’s record of leading the team to five IPL titles. Raised questions over team decisions Tiwary also criticised some tactical decisions made during the match. He questioned Hardik’s decision to promote himself in the batting order instead of sending Sherfane Rutherford higher up. He said, “Hardik shouldn’t have promoted himself against the Punjab Kings. He scored 14 runs off 12 balls. Sherfane Rutherford just got five balls. If Rutherford had played as many balls, he would have hit 3-4 sixes. Hardik Pandya thought he could do it. Yes, he could have done it.” He also added, “You should have pushed Rutherford up. And secondly, there is no point in giving Jasprit Bumrah the second over when you are not giving him the first. Deepak Chahar just isn’t able to swing the ball. Shreyas Iyer showed outstanding captaincy, whereas Mumbai Indians’ captaincy was very weak. I think that if a solution is needed, Hardik should step back from the captaincy and hand the responsibility back to Rohit. When you removed Rohit, you did an injustice.” Jayawardena responds to media questions in the post-match presser Amid pressure on Hardik Pandya, Mahela Jayawardene defends Mumbai Indians’ captain as responds to tough questions by the media professionals in the post-natch presser. He said, “Well, I don’t think it’s just on Hardik; I think it’s on every one of us. When we’re not doing well, it’s not an individual; it’s pretty much on me, everyone who’s involved in the management and all that, to see how we can be better,” he said. Jayawardene further defended the team, saying they are playing good cricket but other teams have simply been much better. “I know we’re playing good cricket; we’re not like taken out completely, but at the same time the other teams are much better, more clinical. Obviously, their confidence is high as well when they have that kind of start, so we just need to control phases that we can control. I think the onus is not just on one individual,” he further asserted.