MI vs LSG, IPL 2026: Mumbai Indians’ regular captain Hardik Pandya missing their must-win IPL 2026 clash against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Monday at the Wankhede Stadium has sparked plenty of buzz.
With the seam-bowling all-rounder not walking out at the toss and Suryakumar Yadav coming for it instead, unverified claims have stated that he has been sacked as Mumbai Indians’ skipper over the franchise’s disappointing performance in IPL 2026, headlined by losing seven out of nine matches.
MI vs LSG, IPL 2026: Has Hardik Pandya been sacked as Mumbai Indians’ captain?
While the five-time champions began their campaign with a resounding win over the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), their performance has only gone downhill ever since. They managed to pull one back against the Gujarat Titans at the gigantic Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad and lost three more since, including two at home and a couple of games to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Pandya’s own performance has been poor too, managing only 146 runs in eight matches alongside taking four wickets, averaging a woeful 61.50 alongside an economy rate of 11.90.
The official update from the franchise has been that Pandya has sustained a back spasm, ruling him out of the clash against the Super Giants. The Mumbai Indians are highly unlikely to make such a drastic decision in the middle of the season despite a poor outing.
MI vs LSG, IPL 2026: Has Suryakumar Yadav captained the Mumbai Indians before?
It's worth noting that Suryakumar has captained the Mumbai Indians only thrice before and wasn't appointed the full-time captain of the franchise after Rohit as the management decided to go with Pandya. Although he is one of the most successful Indian T20I captains, headlined by a recent T20 World Cup victory, Mumbai Indians have won only one game out of three in which the veteran has led. His most recent game as skipper was the fixture against the Delhi Capitals earlier in the tournament at the Arun Jaitley Stadium and the hosts won by successfully chasing down 164, thanks to Sameer Rizvi's 90.
Lucknow Super Giants(Playing XI): Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Josh Inglis, Nicholas Pooran, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Himmat Singh, Mohammed Shami, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, Prince Yadav.
Mumbai Indians(Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton(w), Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Will Jacks, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, AM Ghazanfar, Raghu Sharma.