'From a leadership perspective … ': Kieron Pollard's take on captain Hardik Pandya's IPL 2026 season

NEW DELHI: Mumbai Indians endured a disappointing IPL 2026 season and even their hopes of signing off with a victory failed to materialise as the five-time champions suffered another defeat in their final league-stage match.

Mumbai Indians finished ninth in the 10-team points table after going down to Rajasthan Royals by 30 runs in their last league game of the season. It was MI’s 10th defeat in 14 matches during a forgettable campaign.



Following the loss, Mumbai Indians batting coach Kieron Pollard admitted that skipper Hardik Pandya’s leadership stint had not unfolded the way either the player or the franchise would have wanted.

"From a leadership perspective on Hardik, yes, it has not gone as well as he would have wanted as an individual," Pollard said after the match.

"It might not have gone how we would have wanted as a management staff. But one thing you (should) know that we have tried each and everything to give him the best opportunity to lead the franchise, to do well."

Pollard insisted that the disappointing season could not be blamed on one individual and described it as a collective failure for the entire Mumbai Indians group.

"No one is going to sit here and put blame on point fingers. When you lose, especially, you have to look at it from a collective perspective. You win some, you lose some. But, at the end of the day, I wouldn't question certain things," he said.

"He (Pandya) was trying; we all were trying, and it just didn't work out for us. You sit, you talk, (and) see what is (for the) best. Never know what is going to happen. For us, let us just lick our wounds in (this) time and hopefully come back stronger in the 12 months," Pollard added.

When asked whether Mumbai Indians needed a reboot considering the number of senior players in the squad, Pollard said the franchise would first take time to assess what went wrong before making any decisions.

"Right now, is not the time and place to talk about that," he said.

"All these things would be sort of emotional decisions and thinking of every aspect of what is needed, everyone needs that time and space to go sit down, recollect, have a fair assessment as to where everything actually went wrong for us."

"That is where better decision-making is going to come about. If you sit here right now and say you need to do this, you need to do that, that would be irresponsible from a management perspective," he added.

Mumbai Indians had finished third in IPL 2025, but the 2026 season saw a dramatic fall for one of the tournament’s most successful franchises.


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