Former Indian opener Sadagoppan Ramesh criticized Hardik Pandya’s captaincy for the Mumbai Indians’ (MI) losing streak in the 2026 IPL season. After opening their campaign with a win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), the five-time champions have lost their next three matches.

Their latest setback came at home against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by 18 runs. With only one win in four games, MI are currently eighth on the points table, ahead of only KKR and Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

Talking about Hardik’s captaincy on his Instagram handle, Ramesh pointed to his poor usage of ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah in the RCB clash, saying:

“MI’s only issue is Hardik Pandya’s captaincy. Hardik, the player, is at the upper echelon but remains mediocre as captain. He made a huge error by using two overs of Bumrah in the powerplay. Yes, the other bowlers were getting smashed, so Hardik was desperate. But Bumrah bowled his second over in the sixth over of the innings and came back only in the 17th over. It means your best bowler wasn’t in the contest for 60 deliveries.”

He continued:

“Though Bumrah himself hasn’t picked up wickets, he still has the best economy among the MI bowlers. He is the only one with the ability to turn a game on its head at any stage. So once he bowled a second over inside the powerplay, RCB played it cleverly by not taking any chances against him in the sixth over. They knew Bumrah would not be in the game in the next 10 overs.”

Ramesh also questioned Hardik for the usage of his spinners, adding:

“The other big mistake Hardik made was bowling spinners at both ends in the seventh and eighth overs. Bowling spin at both ends is a cardinal sin at the Wankhede Stadium. He also gave Markande an over against a Patidar, who is already an excellent player and turns into a beast against spinners. How will you bowl a spinner against Patidar?”

While Bumrah went wicketless for a fourth consecutive outing and finished with figures of 0/35 in four overs, the two spinners, Mitchell Santner and Mayank Markande, combined for woeful figures of 1/83 in six overs.

“Hardik Pandya seems to be in a confused state when captaining” – Sadagoppan Ramesh

Sadagoppan Ramesh believes Hardik Pandya is in a confused state of mind on the field as the MI captain. The all-rounder took over as the franchise’s captain ahead of the 2024 IPL season.

MI finished at the bottom of the standings in 2024 and was eliminated in the second qualifier last year.

“Hardik Pandya seems to be in a confused state when captaining. He bowled a high full toss to Tim David and took a review. Even Suryakumar Yadav was shocked that he took the review. Then Hardik tried to reverse his decision on the review, but it had already gone up. It is also clearly visible that Rohit Sharma disagrees with many of the decisions Hardik Pandya makes,” said Ramesh (via the aforementioned source).

He concluded:

“Even if MI had won this match, the captaincy errors were glaring enough that they can finish in the top four and win the title only if these are corrected. With the kind of team they have, Hardik Pandya doesn’t have to excel as captain. He just has to avoid making blatant mistakes. It’s unfathomable if MI doesn’t make the top four with this team.”

MI will look to stop the losing streak at three when they take on the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Mumbai on Thursday, April 16.