Former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh said that Mumbai Indians (MI) decision to bring back all-rounder Hardik Pandya to the franchise as a captain backfired and the team did not play cohesively as a unit. The ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season was one to forget for five-time champions MI. They brought back Pandya after a two-year stint with Gujarat Titans (GT), which involved winning the title in their debut season in 2022, but replacing Rohit Sharma as a captain led to massive social media backlash for the all-rounder and franchise. Pandya was booed in stadiums all over India during his matches and the team finished at the bottom of the points table with four wins, 10 losses and eight points. Pandya, who had played a crucial role in the franchise’s success from 2015-21, could not put on match-winning performances.

Speaking to ANI about MI’s decision to bring back Pandya, Harbhajan said that the decision backfired and led to a lack of unity in the team. He also felt that this decision could have been taken a year later. However, he said that Hardik is not at fault.

“MI has a big team. I have played for it. The management is great and runs the team well. But this decision has backfired. Maybe the thinking was to look for the future. It seems that it did not sit well with the team as they did not look united. It was bound to happen. It pains me to see such a big team, an old team of mine face such poor results. Maybe the timing of the decision was not right. It could have been better had this decision been taken an year later. It is not Hardik’s fault, he was captaining really well in GT. The duty of the senior players is to keep players united no matter who is the captain. Captains come and go. They did not play like a team,” said Harbhajan to ANI.

In 14 matches, Pandya scored 216 runs at an average of 18.00 and a strike rate of 143.04, with the best score of 46. He also took 11 wickets at poor average of 35.18 and an economy rate of 10.75.

However, fans will expect Pandya to turn up as a different player in India’s blue jersey when ICC T20 World Cup starts in the West Indies and USA from June 1 onwards. Given the all-rounder’s fine record in white-ball international cricket and tendency to bring his top game under pressure, vice-captain Pandya will be a crucial part of Team India’s campaign, led by Rohit.

India is placed in Group A of the ICC tournament alongside arch-rivals Pakistan, Ireland, Canada and co-hosts USA.

India will begin their T20 World Cup campaign against Ireland on June 5 at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York, followed by the marquee clash against Pakistan on June 9 at the same venue. India will then play the USA and Canada on June 12 and 15 respectively.

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj

Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan.