Don't Miss

ENG

Cricket
Football
NDTV Podcast
Formula 1
Tennis
Golf
Badminton
- Kabaddi
- Boxing
- Athletics
- Chess
- Swimming
- Shooting
- Wrestling
- Table tennis
- Othersports
- NFL
- NBA
- NHL
- US Streamers
- MMA
- WWE

Dark / Light mode

Oct 8,2026 07:36 PM IST

Ex-India Star Hits Back At R Ashwin, Namedrops Rohit Sharma In Big 'Captaincy' Warning To MI

facebook

twitter

Settings

Change Font Size

A A
Change Language

हिंदी | Hindi
Focus on Story

Select Language

Languages
हिंदी | Hindi

Dark / Light mode

Featured Links
Featured Sports
- Cricket
- Football
- Formula 1
- Tennis
- Hockey
- Golf
- Badminton
More Sports
- Kabaddi
- Boxing
- Athletics
- Chess
- Swimming
- Shooting
- Wrestling
- Table tennis
- Othersports
More from NDTV
- NDTV
- Business
- Hindi
- Movies
- Cricket
- Health
- Food
- Tech
- Auto
- Apps
- Trains

IPL 2026 28 Mar 26 to 24 May 26

Scores
Auction
News
Photos
Videos
Fixtures
Results
Points table
Tracker
More
- teams
- Stats
- players
- Venues

arrow-down reddit snapchat twitter facebook comments email printer search bell top-nav reddit-fill snapchat-fill twitter-fill facebook-fill share whatsapp-fill bookmark arrow-rgt arrow-next arrow-up refresh close link cog star book zap cricket football tennis formula-1 badminton hockey golf boxing ndtv-n check left-arrow right-arrow

Live Cricket Matches

Cricket Matches
Football Matches
All Matches

India Matches

IPL 2026

Football Matches

Cricket Matches
Football Matches
All Matches

ISL

IPL 2026

All Matches

Cricket Matches
Football Matches
All Matches

India Matches

EPL

Final, Indian Premier League, 2026 at Ahmedabad, May 31, 2026

Royal Challengers Bengaluru

161/5 (18.0)

Gujarat Titans

155/8 (20.0)

Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Gujarat Titans by 5 wickets
Qualifier 2, Indian Premier League, 2026 at New Chandigarh, May 29, 2026

Gujarat Titans

219/3 (18.4)

Rajasthan Royals

214/6 (20.0)

Gujarat Titans beat Rajasthan Royals by 7 wickets
Eliminator, Indian Premier League, 2026 at New Chandigarh, May 27, 2026

Sunrisers Hyderabad

196 (19.2)

Rajasthan Royals

243/8 (20.0)

Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 47 runs

Sports Home IPL 2026 News ExIndia Star Hits Back At R Ashwin Namedrops Rohit Sharma In Big Captaincy Warning To MI

Story ProgressBack to home

Ex-India Star Hits Back At R Ashwin, Namedrops Rohit Sharma In Big 'Captaincy' Warning To MI

Former India cricketer Mohammad Kaif suggested that Mumbai Indians (MI) should not make the mistake of replacing Hardik Pandya as captain.

Written by Roddur Mookherjee
Updated: March 27, 2026 07:03 am IST

Read Time: 2 min

facebook

twitter

E-mail

Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya in MI colours© BCCI

Show

Quick Read

Summary is AI-generated, newsroom-reviewed

Former India cricketer Mohammad Kaif stated that Mumbai Indians should not replace Hardik Pandya as captain
"Suryakumar is an option, but it should not happen like how they treated Rohit Sharma," Kaif said
Kaif opposed Ravichandran Ashwin's views, who had stated that MI should replace Hardik with Suryakumar

Did our AI summary help?

Let us know.

Switch To Beeps Mode

The debate around who should be Mumbai Indians (MI) captain continues amongst experts despite just a couple of days to go till the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season begins. This is because India's T20 World Cup 2026-winning captain Suryakumar Yadav serves as deputy to Hardik Pandya at MI, despite the latter no longer holding a designated leadership role in the national team. However, while legendary India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin had said that MI should make the captaincy switch, former India batter Mohammad Kaif stated that doing so would be a "mistake".

Kaif compared a potential captaincy switch from Hardik to Suryakumar to the transition from Rohit Sharma to Hardik ahead of the 2024 season.

"I don't think that Mumbai Indians should make the same mistake again. They had a poor season after removing Rohit Sharma and bringing Hardik Pandya in. Hardik Pandya is settling in his role now. They played Qualifier 2 last year. So, Hardik Pandya did a good job as captain," Kaif said, speaking on his YouTube channel.

In 2024, despite leading the franchise to five titles, Rohit was replaced as MI skipper, with Hardik taking over the role after leading Gujarat Titans (GT) to two finals in as many seasons. At that point, Hardik was Rohit's deputy in white-ball cricket for Team India, and the heir apparent.

"Suryakumar Yadav is an option, but it should not happen like how they treated Rohit Sharma, saying now we have Hardik Pandya, who made Gujarat champions, so he will captain now. Hardik was the hot topic then, and they pushed him. Now Suryakumar Yadav is the hot topic. Next year, someone else will be the hot topic, so will you then remove Surya?" Kaif reasoned.

While MI finished rock-bottom in their first season under Hardik's captaincy in 2024, they enjoyed a much stronger season in 2025, getting all the way to Qualifier 2.