Delhi: At present, Mumbai Indians are out of IPL 2026 and even in the mathematics of points, all roads are closed in the race for the playoffs. Still, all eyes are on their match against Punjab Kings on May 14 in Dharamshala. In terms of win or loss, this match is special for Punjab Kings, not for Mumbai Indians but every eye is on their captain Hardik Pandya.

He did not go to Dharamshala with the team and speculation is rife that not only IPL 2026 is over for Hardik, so is his playing for Mumbai Indians. The Dharamshala match will put an end to such speculations.

There are two records to note:

* The team that has lost the most matches so far in the IPL in the 2020s is Mumbai Indians and the team which was famous for winning matches, has lost 54 matches so far.

* Recent record of Mumbai Indians against the giants: 2 wins and 7 losses in the last 9 matches against RCB, 2 wins and 8 losses in the last 10 matches against CSK and 3 wins and 7 losses in the last 10 matches against Punjab Kings.

Both these records are proof that Mumbai Indians are slowly losing the legacy that the team has earned over the years, especially under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma. On most occasions, this team has looked disorganized, confused and playing without any scheme and everyone agrees that it is time for the team to go to the ‘operations table’. As anesthesia, it will start with the change in captaincy. The situation has become so bad that Hardik Pandya’s condition has become like the captain of a ship who is watching the ship sinking in front of him.

Will Hardik stay on the ship till the end of the season?

According to the points table of May 12, Mumbai Indians are equal to Lucknow among the bottom two teams on a total of 6 points with 3 wins and 8 losses in 11 matches. Seeing such condition of the team continuously, it is natural for the Mumbai Indians team management to get upset and in such a situation, it is not surprising if Hardik Pandya is on ‘pink slip’. IPL is all about contracts, releases and new contracts but Hardik Pandya’s case is different from this. The way Mumbai Indians had added him for the second innings, his honeymoon is over.

The news of two other teams starting to make their own strategy on ‘Hardik Pandya’ is giving further fuel to this speculation.

The IPL Season 19 campaign for Mumbai Indians has been such a disappointment that if they had their way, they could remove it from their records. The problem is that it all started with a decision of his own. The historic trade by which Hardik Pandya was brought in to give the team a future captain, spoiled the atmosphere within the team so much that no effort has been able to improve it. Not only Rohit Sharma, there is news of many other players in the team camp also playing on bad equation with Hardik Pandya.

Nowadays, we start getting information about the ‘health of relationships’ through social media and the same happened here too. Captain Hardik Pandya unfollowed Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma and even the Mumbai Indians franchise on Instagram, later followed the team but deleted all the photos of Mumbai Indians from his profile. In the environment of news like this, it is not surprising that the condition of the team feels like a sinking ship.

In this game of follow/unfollow, it did not take long for the fans to guess that Hardik has started preparations to leave Mumbai Indians before the next season and the team is also ready for it. That is why the absence of Hardik Pandya in the playing eleven of Mumbai Indians in the last two matches and Suryakumar Yadav captaining the team, no one linked it with Hardik not actually being fit. After that he did not even go to Dharamshala with the team. The report is that the atmosphere and conditions inside the dressing room of Mumbai Indians are not good at all. There are many types of problems there. Hardik’s relations with Mumbai Indians management have deteriorated and he may not play even a single more match for Mumbai this season. Mumbai Indians management is not at all happy with Hardik Pandya’s captaincy and performance.

Mumbai Indians still want player Hardik Pandya, not captain Hardik Pandya, whereas Hardik has made it clear that if he plays, he will play only as captain. This is where the entire current controversy started.