IPL 2026: MI skipper Hardik Pandya trains alone in nets as rest of the squad travel to Dharamsala ahead of PBKS game

Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya trained alone in Mumbai as the team travelled to Dharamsala without him for the IPL 2026 match against Punjab Kings (PBKS) scheduled to take place on Thursday.

The Baroda all-rounder shared a few videos on his Instagram story which shows him practising his batting against throwdown specialists and net bowlers. Hardik Pandya has missed MI's last two matches due to a back spasm, with Suryakumar Yadav leading the side in Hardik's absence.

Hardik had joined the Mumbai Indians team ahead of the previous match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), but wasn't cleared to play.

"Hardik has not been cleared by the medical team to take the field," Mumbai Indians had said in a statement ahead of the RCB clash. A report in Cricbuzz added that Hardik is being monitored by the support staff in Mumbai.

Hardik Pandya himself has endured a forgettable IPL 2026 season so far. In eight matches, he has aggregated just 146 runs while managing to take just four wickets.

After the match against RCB, Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene said that his team did not want to risk the veteran cricketer.

"Yeah. Hardik had a back issue which we were trying to rectify, but it hasn't settled in yet. So the medical guys were working on him. He couldn't train the last few days, so we didn't want to take a risk without knowing exactly. So we'll see. It's on a day-to-day basis. See how he feels. And then we'll make a decision on that," Jayawardene had said.

Hardik played for Mumbai Indians from 2015 to 2021, but was acquired by Gujarat Titans (GT) ahead of the IPL 2022 season.

He led Gujarat Titans to their maiden IPL title in 2022, which was their debut season, and led them to the IPL 2023 final, where they lost to Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

Hardik returned to Mumbai Indians ahead of IPL 2024 via a trade deal, and took over captaincy from Rohit Sharma. In IPL 2024, however, MI finished rock-bottom of the 10-team standings, but reached the playoffs in IPL 2025, where they lost to Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Qualifier 2.

Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar recently suggested MI bringing in youngsters for their last few matches.

"In T20 cricket, ups and downs are bound to happen. Once the season ends, that's the right time to properly assess what went wrong.

"But at this stage, my view is that the senior players have given everything they had. Now, it may be the right opportunity to give younger players a chance in the remaining matches. That will help the franchise understand how these youngsters handle pressure and whether they can justify the faith shown in them," Gavaskar had said on Star Sports’ Cricket Live show.