Hardik Pandya Average Captain; Overdependency on Jasprit Bumrah-Suryakumar Yadav: Listing Mumbai Indians Faults in IPL 2025

PBKS vs MI, IPL 2025: While it was celebration in the Punjab Kings camp, it was the exact opposite in the Mumbai Indians set-up. Following the five-wicket loss, MI players were heartbroken on Sunday in Ahmedabad. For the unversed, MI is one of the most successful franchises in the history of IPL with five titles in their cabinet. So what happened this year? MI got their campaign off to the worst-possible start. They lost five of their first six matches and at that point - it seemed like MI will not make the playoffs. But things changed as some MI players came up with the goods and somehow helped them make it to the playoffs. But what were the drawbacks for MI this year. 

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MI's Drawbacks in IPL 2025

Hardik Pandya's Captaincy: The MI captain failed to inspire with the ball and the bat and that did not help. There were also fingers raised at his style of captaincy. Against Punjab, why didn't Hardik complete his quota and bowl merely two overs? This question is bound to be raised, also why did Mitchell Santner bowl merely two overs? 

Overdependency on Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav: It has become a tendency for MI over the past few seasons to depend heavily on Suryakumar Yadava and Jasprit Bumrah. Against Punjab, that ploy did not work and they ended up losing the game. Suryakumar Yadav got a start but could not carry on and get a big one. He scored 44 off 26 balls. On the other hand, Bumrah went wicketless. In four overs, Bumrah conceded 40 runs. 

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Ordinary Season For Tilak Varma: The southpaw is regarded as one of the most destructive batters in T20 cricket, but he had an ordinary IPL 2025 and that hurt MI. In 16 games this season, he has amassed 343 runs, but is way less than what is expected of him. 

What MI Can do in IPL 2026? 

Mumbai Indians should not be heartbroken with their IPL 2025 campaign. They should realise that they did extremely well to make the playoffs after a dismal start to their campaign. There would be a mini-auction and it would be interesting to see who MI releases and who they get onboard.