Pollard admitted Hardik’s captaincy had not gone well, and now he is Mumbai Indians’ head coach
Mahela Jayawardene’s replacement comes from inside the dressing room, with a retention list due in three weeks and the Hardik Pandya question still open.
Oct 24, 2026
Kieron Pollard is the new head coach of Mumbai Indians. The franchise announced on Saturday that he has been promoted from batting coach to replace Mahela Jayawardene, who left a week ago after MI finished ninth in IPL 2026.
Pollard is 39 and has only ever played for one IPL side. He joined MI in 2010 and played 189 matches for them up to 2022, with 3412 runs and 69 wickets. He was in the squad for all five of their titles, in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020, and became batting coach as soon as he stopped playing in the IPL.
“MI has been a huge part of my life and career,” he said in the franchise’s statement. Co-owner Nita Ambani said: “Polly knows what it means to wear the MI jersey and what it takes to play for the Paltan.”
The first job is a list
He gets no time to ease in. Franchises have to lodge their retention lists by mid-November, and the auction follows about a month later. The BCCI has pencilled it in for 16 December in Goa.
That list is where the awkward conversation starts. Hardik Pandya has captained MI since 2024, and this year they won four of 14 games. After the last of them, a 30-run defeat to Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede on 24 May, Pollard was asked about Hardik’s leadership. He said it had not gone “as well as he would have wanted as an individual”, and added: “It might not have gone how we would have wanted as a management staff.”
He said that as the batting coach. As head coach, he will have a much louder voice in whether Hardik keeps the armband for 2027. MI have said nothing about the captaincy yet.
From Jayawardene to Pollard
Jayawardene’s exit was announced on 17 October as a mutual decision. His first spell in charge ran from 2017 to 2022 and brought three titles, and he came back for the 2025 season, when MI reached the playoffs. This year they were never in the race.
Pollard has run a team before, just not in the IPL. He is head coach of MI London in the Hundred. He also still plays: for Trinbago Knight Riders in the CPL since 2019, and in the coming SA20 for Joburg Super Kings, who bought him at this month’s auction without a bid from MI Cape Town.