'Hardik should himself say no to captaincy' - Former opener's bold take on MI captaincy ahead of IPL 2026

Former Indian cricketer Kris Srikkanth has opined that Hardik Pandya needs to hand over the captaincy of the Mumbai Indians to Suryakumar Yadav.

Ever since 2024, the Mumbai Indians captaincy saga has been one to watch out for, with various talks of rifts, varying opinions and accounts filling the media. Hardik Pandya, being traded in from the Gujarat Titans was immediately given the captaincy of the franchise on his return. That was followed up with a last-placed finish in 2024, with Hardik receiving jeers at almost every home game. Mumbai made the playoffs in 2025, but the lack of the trophy has become a talking point.

The former Indian batter believes that franchise needs to come together and find a solution, which according to him would be to hand over the captaincy to Suryakumar Yadav, who recently led the Indian team to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

“They have to come together again, the franchise owners and the team management with Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, and Hardik Pandya, and set this right again. They should ask Surya to lead this year to see if there is a change of luck. They can always appoint Surya as the captain anytime. They don't need to announce it right now,” Srikkanth said, speaking on his YouTube channel.

MI’s last IPL triumph came in 2020, under the leadership of Rohit Sharma, who also led India to the T20 World Cup in 2024. Srikkanth believes that the obvious choice to take the reins at MI is Suryakumar Yadav.

“It's a funny situation. Hardik Pandya is a good captain. But, yes, they have two T20 World Cup-winning captains playing under him now. It's some internal policy within their setup that they have to sort out. From the outside, the obvious choice should be Suryakumar Yadav. But this might be a franchise policy," he added.

Srikkanth further added that the procedure would be easy if Hardik voluntarily hands over the captaincy to Suryakumar, while being a reliable presence under both Indian Team captains.

"It's a strange situation, as Hardik played under Rohit and Surya to help India win the World Cup. Otherwise, Hardik should himself say no to captaincy and allow Surya to lead. If Hardik himself says this to the management, things will get resolved. He should say, 'Let Surya lead and I'll support'. That's one way of solving it," Srikkanth explained.

Mumbai Indians will play their first game of the season at the Wankhede Stadium against the Kolkata Knight Riders on March 29.