Former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary has urged Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya to relinquish captaincy amid his team's poor start to IPL 2026.
Mumbai Indians are currently in ninth place in the 10-team IPL standings, with just two points from five matches.
Their only win so far came against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their opening match of the season. Since then, they have lost four consecutive matches, with the latest one coming against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Thursday.
"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," Manoj Tiwary said on Cricbuzz.
Manoj Tiwary urges Hardik Pandya to give up MI captaincy
Hardik Pandya, who led Gujarat Titans to their maiden IPL title in 2022, completed a blockbuster trade move to Mumbai Indians ahead of IPL 2024, and took over captaincy from Rohit Sharma.
Hardik was earlier part of MI from 2015 and 2021, before being acquired by Gujarat Titans ahead of IPL 2022. Manoj said that he wants Hardik to quit MI captaincy and give it back to Rohit. MI's last IPL title came in 2020 when they defeated Delhi Capitals (DC) in the final.
"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.
"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," the former Bengal cricketer explained.
Mumbai Indians will hope to return to winning ways when they take on Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on Monday, but they have a mountain to climb as far as their playoff hopes are concerned. Having said that, Mumbai Indians cannot afford any more slip-ups in the rest of their IPL 2026 campaign.