So, the Mumbai Indians sort of endured a disappointing IPL 2026 season, and honestly they only managed to win four out of their fourteen league stage matches. The five-time IPL champions ended up finishing ninth on the points table, and this rough run has once again kicked off serious arguments about Hardik Pandya’s captaincy. After all, since Pandya took over, MI have struggled quite a bit and they’ve put together some of their weakest performances in recent memory. Still, a recent report claims the problem isn’t just Hardik alone or strictly him. Apparently, senior players, like Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma, plus Jasprit Bumrah too, have reportedly been brought into the spotlight by MI management because of worries around their “uncoachable” approach, or something along those lines. Mumbai Indians have, for a long time, had quite a few experienced Indian players who kept turning up with steady performances for the national team. That kind of squad, yknow , tends to set up a kind of clash between strong temperaments and different leadership methods, and Rohit Sharma sort of handled that well for years. Yet after some internal disagreements, happening during the IPL 2024 season, Rohit Sharma was removed from captaincy, and Hardik Pandya was handed the reins right after his big move away from Gujarat Titans. Since Pandya came in as skipper, the MI dressing room has, a lot of time, looked like a place filled with several dominant personalities, sort of all at once. With Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, and Jasprit Bumrah in the squad, Hardik has had to handle this tricky situation of leading players who already have bigger captaincy experience and slightly different ways of thinking in that team setup. Maybe that is one of the main reasons why Mumbai Indians have been showing inconsistent performances since 2024. The franchise has also seen on field disagreements that were clearly noticeable, involving Hardik and a few other senior members. Meanwhile, MI management has reportedly found it hard to steer players who have strong influence both inside the ground and off it, too. Mumbai Official Hints At 'Tough To Manage' Senior Players: According to an exclusive report by The Indian Express, a source close to the franchise said that after the Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals match, the coaching staff had a bit of a discussion with the players. Even if a handful of senior players backed the coaches’ ideas off the field, they apparently brushed past those plans during games , despite the fact that the strategies were backed by data. While Hardik Pandya’s captaincy keep on being a big talking point for the franchise, the vibe and adaptability of senior players is now getting questioned too, a bit, maybe more than before. Historically, Mumbai Indians have been one of the most dominant IPL teams across the league phase. Back in 2015, MI managed to win 10 out of 16 matches. Then during 2017, they got 11 wins from 17 games, and that included the playoffs. In 2019, the unit again won 10 out of 16 matches, while the 2021 season saw them notch 11 victories from 16 games, overall. Also Read | IPL 2026: ‘Lage Raho Bete’ Gavaskar’s Special Message To Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Goes Viral However, things have changed quite a bit since 2024 under Hardik Pandya’s leadership. MI managed only four wins out of 14 games in his first season as captain, and yeah it looked shaky from the start. The next season did show a small uptick, with nine wins in 16 matches, but the losing momentum still stayed there, so they could not really keep the bar high, the standards and legacy that were built over the years. And this also spills over into individual outputs. Right now, none of the Mumbai Indians players are in the running for the Orange Cap, or for the Purple Cap either. Ryan Rickelton, who is their main run-scorer, is placed just 17th among the top batters in the tournament, which is kind of surprising, honestly. On the bowling side, Allah Ghazanfar is listed 14th in the wicket-taking charts among spinners. Even though the squad includes several world-class cricketers, and a bunch of World Cup winners too, Mumbai Indians keep stumbling into inconsistent performances on the field. Right now the franchise has to quickly figure out the root causes behind this decline and take corrective action, before things slide even more.