If a PTI report is to be believed, Axar Patel, Ajinkya Rahane and Rishabh Pant — all of whom led their teams for two successive seasons without delivering a playoff berth — are the frontrunners to lose captaincy duties after disastrous IPL 2026 campaigns.

Of the three, Lucknow Super Giants, led by Pant, are already officially eliminated. Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders, meanwhile, are still mathematically alive, but the writing has long been on the wall for both teams.

Yet there remains another franchise that also suffered an early elimination: Mumbai Indians. And despite another disappointing season, the much-criticised Hardik Pandya appears to have escaped the same scrutiny.

The PTI report, notably, made no mention of Hardik despite Mumbai managing just three wins this season. MI currently sit ninth in the table, only above LSG and just below KKR, while Delhi are placed seventh.

Hardik is not merely another captain for Mumbai Indians. He is a homegrown product who spent seven seasons with the franchise between 2015 and 2021 before being released. Gujarat Titans immediately seized the opportunity, and alongside Ashish Nehra, Hardik transformed into one of the IPL’s most successful young leaders.

In Gujarat’s debut season, Hardik led them to the IPL title. A year later, they reached another final.

Mumbai brought him back ahead of IPL 2024, reportedly on the condition that he would captain the side. The franchise removed Rohit Sharma — their five-time title-winning skipper — in one of the boldest leadership calls in IPL history.

The backlash was immediate and brutal.

Hardik was booed across venues, trolled relentlessly online and became the centre of constant speculation surrounding Mumbai’s dressing-room atmosphere. The 2024 season ended with MI finishing bottom of the table.

Yet what followed perhaps remains the biggest reason why Mumbai are unlikely to panic now.

A season later, Hardik led the franchise to the playoffs, with MI winning the Eliminator before falling in Qualifier 2. That rebound, after the humiliation of 2024, showed resilience and leadership under extreme pressure — qualities franchises rarely discard quickly.

And unlike Axar, Rahane or Pant, Hardik already has a proven IPL captaincy pedigree.

Even this season’s struggles cannot entirely be pinned on leadership alone.

Nothing has truly clicked for Mumbai. Rohit Sharma battled injuries midway through the campaign. Jasprit Bumrah remained wicketless through the first half and lacked support from the bowling unit. Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma endured lean patches with the bat.

Hardik himself has had a below-par season, scoring just 146 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 136.44 while taking only four wickets at nearly 12 runs per over. Some tactical calls, too, have invited criticism — including holding back Bumrah in certain phases and the baffling decision to use Shardul Thakur as an Impact Player against SRH without giving him a single over.

But Mumbai’s larger investment in Hardik extends beyond one poor season.

The franchise viewed him as a long-term leadership successor the moment they brought him back from Gujarat. That vision does not disappear after one failed campaign, especially for a captain who still owns a 57.7 win percentage across 45 IPL matches as skipper.

Before Mumbai Indians take a call that could shape the next three-year cycle, they would do well to remember this: the same captain now under scrutiny took a brand-new franchise to a title in its very first season, recovered from a last-place finish to reach the playoffs a year later, and has already shown he can withstand pressure few captains survive.

For a franchise built on stability and long-term planning, patience may still outweigh panic.