India, May 13 -- Hardik Pandya is not your average cricketer. Cricketing skills aside, he is flamboyant, borderline cocky and supremely confident in his abilities. While these are valuable traits in elite sport, putting multiple strong personalities on the same path can often lead to friction. Hardik the cricketer is insanely talented. He remains India's No. 1 all-rounder; someone the team can bank on to deliver. But somehow, someway, with the Mumbai Indians, it simply hasn't added up.

Three seasons in, and all Hardik and MI have to show for their partnership is a Playoff finish, one Mumbai barely scraped into. For MI fans, 2024 and 2026 are seasons they would rather forget. This is a franchise built on history, on winning games and tour...