There have been plenty of rumors surrounding Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya following the conclusion of IPL 2026. AdNow, a report in The Indian Express has claimed that Pandya held talks with his former franchise Gujarat Titans (GT) over a possible return. In this feature, we look at three reasons why Pandya must not return to the GT franchise for IPL 2027. As captain, Pandya failed to get the best out of senior players in MI. In IPL 2026, Pandya scored just 208 runs in 10 matches at an average of 22.88 and a strike rate of 138.25.