The Mumbai Indians have won just two of their seven matches in IPL 2026 so far. The reasons for that are many, and Hardik Pandya’s moves as a captain have also come
under scrutiny.

While Mumbai are struggling with many of their key players going through a lean patch or sitting out with an injury, former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin pointed out that their latest loss — a 103-run thrashing at the hands of the CSK — was because of some questionable moves from captain Pandya.

Analysing the game on his YouTube channel, Ashwin said: “I am slightly underwhelmed. Hardik Pandya won the toss and handed the advantage to a team that has only won matches in this tournament by batting first. Do you remember the first game the Mumbai Indians played? They lost in a similar fashion against RCB. In that game, RCB batted first.

“RCB has significant power hitting through to the end of the order, which allowed them to post a huge score. Chennai doesn’t have quite that much power, and Mumbai actually bowled slightly better today... That is why they conceded 208, but Mumbai still couldn’t chase it down.

“If you learn from the conditions, you realise that by winning the toss and bowling, you gave the advantage back to the CSK line-up. As I said, if you win the toss against
SRH or CSK and there is no dew, you must make them bat second.”

Ashwin also criticised the move to give rookie Krish Bhagat the 20th over to bowl, despite Pandya having two overs of his own remaining. “...as a captain, you should shoulder that pressure,” Ashwin said.