IPL2024 : Hardik Pandya drops a bombshell , all set to leave Gujarat for MI

 

There are still more than three months left for IPL 2024 to start.  Even before that, this league has been in the news a lot.  Actually, suddenly news of Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya joining Mumbai Indians has come to light.  Gujarat team has been playing IPL for the last two seasons and in the last two seasons the team has reached the finals under the captaincy of Hardik.

 In 2022, Gujarat team became champion.  Now reports are coming that Hardik is ready to leave Gujarat and Mumbai wants to include him in their team through the trade window.  Gujarat is also ready to release Hardik.  However, Mumbai is currently short of funds.  The transfer window will close on the 26th.  Mumbai will have to pay the amount before that.  The deal is almost finalized.

 According to media reports, Mumbai will have to pay Rs 15 crore (about $1.8 million) as Hardik's salary and transfer fee to Titans.  Information regarding the amount of transfer fee has not been received yet.  Hardik will get up to 50 percent of the transfer fee.  Hardik also started his IPL career with Mumbai Indians in 2015.

 It will also be interesting to see whether Mumbai will get a new captain after almost 10 years?  Hardik is currently the captain of Gujarat and it will be interesting to see whether he is given the captaincy in Mumbai or not.  Rohit has been the captain of Mumbai since 2013.  Hardik may get a chance to lead in his place.  Hardik is also the T20 captain of Team India and has captained well so far.  Mumbai can take this decision considering Rohit's uncertain future in T20.

If this deal happens then it will be the biggest player trade in IPL history.  However, both the franchises have not yet made any public comment on this.  The biggest challenge for Mumbai is to have sufficient purse for the trade.  After the last auction, Mumbai was left with just Rs 0.05 crore (about US$6000).  The franchise will get an additional Rs 5 crore (about US$600,000) in its purse for the upcoming auction.

 This means that Mumbai needs to release one or two big players to include Hardik.  The retention deadline ends on November 26 at 4pm.  Only on 26th will we know which team is retaining which player and whom it is releasing.  The players to be released will have to enter the auction.

 Hardik had led Gujarat Titans to the title in his very first IPL season in 2022.  Hardik was the player of the match in the final against Rajasthan Royals.  In 2023, the Titans made it to the IPL final for the second time in two consecutive seasons, where they lost to Chennai Super Kings on the last ball in a thriller .  Under Hardik's leadership, Titans topped the points table in the league stage in both the seasons.  The pairing of Hardik and coach Ashish Nehra was a superhit.  In two seasons for the Titans, Hardik scored 833 runs in 30 innings at an average of 41.65 and a strike rate of 133.49.  He also took 11 wickets with an economy of 8.1.

Hardik is currently injured and suffered an ankle injury during India's ODI World Cup campaign.  If Hardik joins Mumbai, he will be the third IPL captain to change team through the trade window.  Earlier in 2020, Delhi Capitals included Ravichandran Ashwin in their team through trade from Punjab Kings.  At the same time, in 2020 itself, Ajinkya Rahane was traded by Delhi Capitals to Rajasthan Royals.

 When the Titans franchise, owned by global fund manager CVC Capital Partners, came into existence in 2021, they were allowed to choose three players from the pool released by other franchises ahead of the mega auction.  Titans included Hardik and Afghanistan all-rounder Rashid Khan in their team for Rs 15 crore, while Shubman Gill was added to the team for Rs 7 crore.  However, after playing two seasons with Gujarat Titans, Hardik is ready to return to the team where he started his IPL career and developed into one of the best all-rounders in the game.

 Hardik, who was bought for Rs 10 lakh in 2015 as an uncapped player, was a part of Mumbai's title-winning seasons in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020.  Hardik is one of the most successful all-rounders in the history of IPL.  He has scored 2309 runs in 123 matches at an average of 30.38 and strike rate of 145.  Apart from this, 53 wickets have also been taken.

 After being retained by Mumbai before every auction till 2021, Hardik was finally released ahead of the 2022 mega auction.  This was a decision of Mumbai which was surprising.  Mumbai were allowed to retain only four players that year and they decided to retain Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav and Kieron Pollard, creating an opportunity for the Titans to sign Hardik as their captain.  However, due to Mumbai's poor performance in the last two seasons and not being able to find a suitable replacement for Hardik, Mumbai has to include him again.

It remain ms to be seen how Mumbai Indians managed to accommodate Hardik . There is a possibility that they may release the expensive buy of last year  Cameron Green who had a decent but not a spectacular first season of IPL with MI.

Meanwhile Gujarat Titans will now have to look for a new captain. At this point Shubman Gill has the edge over two other strong candidates  Kane Williamson and Rashid Khan who are both overseas. 

Meanwhile Mumbai Indians is all set to release Jofra Archer  after their gamble of purchasing him in 2022 for 2 years did not pay off due to Archer's injury.

In other news Ben Stokes ( CSK ) and Joe Root ( Rajasthan  Royals) have both opted out of IPL 2024 .

In other trades  LSG  & RR swapped  Paddikal and Avesh while SRH & RCB will exchange  Mayank Dagar and Shahbaz Ahmed