Mumbai Indians are in need of overhaul after another disappointing IPL season. Now is the time for the management to take strict action against players whose personal interests and ambitions do not contribute to the welfare of the team. The next mega auction is an opportunity for the franchise to correct the mistakes made on the auction table, but the immediate need is to put the house in order and restore normalcy in the dressing room.

Mumbai Indians on Monday managed to mathematically survive in IPL 2026, but the writing is on the wall for the five-time champions as they face another season – the fourth in the last six years – without making the playoffs. The body language of the players and support staff reflected the long, painful summer endured by the franchise.For a team that has struggled to only three wins from ten matches, minute fine-tuning will not help; A complete makeover of the dressing room – which hasn’t been the hottest place since Hardik Pandya took over the captaincy Rohit Sharma – It is necessary. It is understood that the management was happy to maintain patience after the initial turmoil following the captaincy change, but patience is not their best friend at this point, as another wooden spoon finish in IPL 2026 looks likely.MI benefited from BCCI’s new retention policy ahead of the 2025 mega auction, allowing them to retain their ‘core’: Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma and Tilak Verma. Even other teams used the maximum retention slots, but MI was probably the only franchise that could sit at the auction table knowing that half of their playing XI had been selected.So what went wrong for a team that has superstars, leaders and four players who have led India at some point?‘Team’ is the keyword here as it turns out that after the change in captaincy the franchise is still dealing with a shaky dressing room and is constantly struggling to present a united front. For a team that used to pride itself on winning competitions out of nowhere, a perfect “team performance” has been missing for the past few seasons. There have been flashes of individual brilliance, but they have not been enough to add a sixth title to the cabinet.Even after the management has made it clear that Hardik is the captain for the foreseeable future, some people are either harboring captaincy ambitions or are promoting younger players to take over the reins. A senior player has been battling an undisclosed injury for a few seasons now, and some are happy to take it easy, even if it means missing almost a month of competitive cricket. Persistent rumors that the “core” group is not getting along are damaging the team atmosphereOn paper, there is no dearth of superstars and utility players in the MI camp in IPL 2026, but they have been left exposed tactically as the think tank still struggles to determine its ideal playing XI. Constant injuries haven’t helped, nor has inconsistency from the ‘core’.Tilak, strongly projected as the future leader of the franchise, had more than 400 runs in just one season across five editions. His good friend Suryakumar Yadav had a great 2025, but he continued his poor international form in IPL 2026 as well and scored only 195 runs in 10 innings. The lack of aggression from two key parts of the middle order hasn’t helped, nor have Hardik Pandya’s tremendous returns with the bat – 146 runs in eight innings.Rohit Sharma had made a great start to the season but was sidelined for almost a month due to a hamstring injury. Yet their inconsistency is not recent; The right-handed batsman’s only 500-plus run season for the franchise came in the 2013 edition.MI takes a lot of pride in retaining its players for as long as possible, but with the game rapidly evolving, the think tank needs to do better to stay one step ahead. Confident in his ways, he entered last year’s mini-auction with a much smaller purse. He seemed happy with the players he had and supported his strategies – a powerplay dominated by swing and a left-arm fast bowler. However, the reality hit them hard as the opposition batsmen dismissed the balls of Deepak Chahar and Trent Boult with ease. Even Jasprit Bumrah’s mastery disappeared with no support for the world’s premier fast bowler.The next mega auction is an opportunity for the franchise to correct the mistakes made on the auction table, but the immediate need is to put the house in order and restore normalcy in the dressing room. Complete changes are now required, and it is time that the management takes strict action on players whose personal interests and ambitions do not contribute to the interest of the team.