It's been a challenging season of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) for Mumbai Indians and their captain, Hardik Pandya, due to their lacklustre show. Though Pandya has been absent from the team’s recent matches due to injury, the criticism surrounding Mumbai’s disappointing campaign continues to hover around him. Under Hardik’s leadership, the five-time champions managed only two victories in nine games. 

Interestingly, Mumbai Indians have shown signs of improvement in Hardik’s absence. The team secured two wins from their last three matches while being led by stand-in captains Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah. Suryakumar led the side against Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, while Bumrah captained Mumbai to an important victory over Punjab Kings in Dharamsala on Thursday. 

However, former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin defended Mumbai captain and highlighted the team’s ineffective bowling attack as a major reason behind their struggles.

“Honestly, when you have seasons like this, to pin the blame on the captain is quite unfair. Nobody has turned up. The team has failed to turn up and for Hardik to take the blame on himself is… you’re asking him to do a little too much. He was there at Gujarat Titans. Had two fabulous seasons. So clearly as a leader he did something right there,” Ashwin said on ESPNcricinfo.

“When he returned to Mumbai Indians, he had to deal with quite a bit. It’s not easy to replace an incumbent Indian captain, white-ball captain, such as Rohit Sharma. Five [six] titles in the IPL. He’s won a T20 World Cup. And Hardik comes and replaces him. You’ve got a lot of fandom going around in the country. You should have a thick skin to survive the social media these days,” Ashwin said.

Ashwin pointed out that inconsistent bowling performances and errors from the squad as a whole have hurt Mumbai a lot. 

“Bowling has leaked [runs in] every direction. Every single time an over is bowled for six or seven runs, in comes a 15-run over. So what do you do as a captain? And sure, he’s made some calls that have been debatable. Captaincy is the result of how your team is making you look. So which is why I believe when you have a good season, don’t give too much credit to a captain. When you have a bad season, don’t pin it on him,” Ashwin said.