Mumbai Indians is the joint most successful franchise in the history of Indian Premier League. The team in blue and gold have proved their worth in the league, and the 5 time champions always enter the tournament as one of the favourites. But this season everything was different for them. The team which is believed to be one of the strongest teams in the league, had a rather mediocre season. Ending up at the bottom of the table is not a common sight for Mumbai Indian, but this year they ended up doing the same. And even though the team met the same fate in 2022 IPL, the season of the league which the team and fans would like to forget is the one which happened in 2024.

And a numerous factors are responsible for the same. It all begins from the day when Hardik Pandya was named as a captain of the team. The decision to sack Rohit Sharma left the fans shell shocked. Moreover the decision taken without taking the 5 time title winning captain into confidence, left the fans even more fuming. What made matters even worse was that all these discussions started just a week post the 2023 World Cup final defeat, which had devastated all the fans and players like Rohit Sharma. Seeing the face of franchise being sacked and knowing that the skipper which took the team to newer heights will no more lead it, was a tough pill to swallow. And lastly, the only occasion in IPL when the captain of Indian team is not a captain of IPL team, was a massive disrespect to the captain.

The disrespect could've been redeemed by the newly appointed captain Hardik Pandya, and all he had to do is give Rohit Sharma and the team the respect he deserves. However, Pandya brutally failed in doing the same. He knew very well that his ambitions had cost Rohit his well deserved place, but nothing much was done to resolve it. The very first match saw Rohit Sharma being sent to boundary line by Hardik Pandya, and being disrespected by him in multiple other ways. Obviously the Indian skipper might be infuriated by this, but he played selflessly as he always does. But not every player would do the same. Pandya didn't honour his own team members, and his attitude of considering himself above the game just worsened the things. His over confidence overpowered his skills, which led to a flurry of foolish decisions.

Unnecessary experimentations with the game, countering even the basic sense of the cricket led to the team's further downfall. Pandya bowling first when he had Bumrah and Coetzee in the squad, or him not using spinners at the right time, or him setting a poor field are all the examples of the same. At times his leadership was so weak, that players retorted to Rohit Sharma instead of Pandya. Hardik's below par captaincy already had a negative effect on the team, and further the lack of accountability as a captain, and blaming the players publicly demoralised the players' will to play. His comments about Tilak Varma in public were not well received, and his actions like these divided the team into two unofficial but visible groups. And a glance into the history always suggests that groups in one team can never be beneficial for the team's outcomes.

And that's exactly what happened. The team's performance was average, and looking at the same one wondered whether was it really the Mumbai Indians which once everyone loved. Obviously the team saw some good performances, but some good performances and the entire team performing well are two different scenarios. The result of all this was a horrid season for the Men in Blue and Gold. One of the worst seasons of all time, Mumbai stopped to a new low by losing 10 out of 14 matches this season. They did it back in 2022 as well, but back then the squad missed out on a lot of match winners because of injuries. And in 2023, a team with a fragile bowling attack led by Rohit Sharma reached into the playoffs. But this year, a great team with all the stars utterly disappointed everyone and marked thier worst performance ever in the history of this league.

In a nutshell, this edition of IPL is certainly a forgettable one for Mumbai Indians. Having a poor team and not performing can be acceptable, but having a great team and not performing will always be termed as a failure. And this edition of IPL for Mumbai Indians will always be termed as a failure. As a Mumbai Indians fan, it pains to see the team struggle so much in spite of having the potential. And it is heartbreaking to even know that probably this season of the IPL where the team failed, could possibly be the last one for Rohit Sharma for Mumbai Indians. But with the journey already coming to an end, one has to accept what lies ahead and move on from what happened. And similarly, all the Mumbai Indians fans would wish to see their team go ahead with hard learned lessons, which they can put to use in the next edition. And likewise, one would hope to see good happen to Rohit Sharma going ahead, while also hoping that everyone forgets this season as quickly as they could.