Ravichandran Ashwin questions Hardik Pandya's toss call and tactics as Mumbai Indians slump continues in IPL 2026 after defeat to Chennai Super Kings.
With Mumbai Indians stumbling through another uncertain start to IPL 2026, Hardik Pandya finds himself under a familiar, uncomfortable glare. Two wins from seven games have left little room for nuance: the runs aren’t flowing, the wickets aren’t coming, and the decisions are being picked apart.
Key Points
- Mumbai Indians have won just 2 of 7 matches in IPL 2026, putting captain Hardik Pandya under scrutiny.
- Ashwin said MI “handed the advantage” to CSK, who prefer batting first.
- Pandya’s decision to give the final over to rookie Krish Bhagat instead of bowling himself also drew criticism.
In a tournament that rarely pauses, the margins for reflection are slim. For Pandya, the questions are arriving faster than the answers.
The latest point of contention arrived at the toss.
Against Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede, Pandya chose to bowl first -- a call that raised eyebrows, not least from Ravichandran Ashwin, who questioned whether lessons from an earlier defeat had gone unheeded.
Hardik's call at toss was blunder
On his YouTube channel Ash ki Baat Ashwin revisited Mumbai’s loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru on the same surface, when a daunting chase never quite took shape. This time, the script felt eerily familiar, only more abrupt — Mumbai folded for 104 in pursuit of 208.
"I am slightly underwhelmed. Hardik Pandya won the toss and handed the advantage to a team that has only won matches in this tournament by batting first. Do you remember the first game the Mumbai Indians played? They lost in a similar fashion against RCB. In that game, RCB batted first and did what Chennai couldn't quite manage today because of the difference in batting depth," Ashwin noted.
He went on to draw a distinction between the two batting line-ups.
"RCB has significant power hitting through to the end of the order, which allowed them to post a huge score. Chennai doesn't have quite that much power, and Mumbai actually bowled slightly better today; Allah Ghazanfar and Ashwani Kumar performed well, and, of course, we can't forget Jasprit Bumrah. That is why they conceded 208, but Mumbai still couldn't chase it down."
For Ashwin, the issue was not just execution but recognition -- of conditions, of patterns, of precedent.
"The pitch for that game and this game was exactly the same. Even then, Mumbai Indians failed to find any momentum; in the second innings, the surface became even stickier and slower. If you learn from the conditions, you realise that by winning the toss and bowling, you gave the advantage back to the CSK line-up. As I said, if you win the toss against SRH or CSK and there is no dew, you must make them bat second."
Hardik giving Krish to bowl final over not a good move
There was also the question of how the innings was closed out.
Pandya held back two overs of his own, instead turning to rookie Krish Bhagat for the final over -- a decision that did little to ease scrutiny when 16 runs followed.
"Look, I don't have a personal relationship with Hardik, but I have always viewed him as a ‘Box Office’ player. It is easy to pick on him now. Regarding today, giving the ball to Krish Bhagat at the death -- I know he went for 28 or 38 runs in his two overs -- but a man who bowled to David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen in a T20 World Cup final should be bowling those overs himself. Krish Bhagat lacks that experience. I liked Krish; he bowled okay, but as a captain, you should shoulder that pressure. What is the worst that can happen? You go for runs? So be it."
© 2026