Making use of the pre-auction transfer window, Mumbai Indians acquired Hardik Pandya from Gujarat Titans and traded Cam Green to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
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The auction for the 2024 IPL are scheduled to be held on December 19, 2023. As the transfer window opened ahead of the auction, some of the ten franchises traded their cricketers with other teams.
Amidst everything, there were reports of Gujarat trading Hardik Pandya, their captain, to Mumbai Indians, Pandya’s first franchise.
Pandya had won four titles with Mumbai (in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020) before they released him ahead of the 2022 mega auction. There, IPL debutants Gujarat got him for INR 15 crore. Pandya led Gujarat to the final in both 2022 and 2023: they won the first of these and lost the second only in the last ball of the match.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma is yet to play a T20I since India’s semi-final exit at the 2022 T20 World Cup. Not only has Pandya led India in the format in this period but he was also their ODI vice-captain, even at the recently concluded World Cup.
All that added credibility to the reports and speculations, for it seemed logical that Pandya would succeed Rohit as Mumbai captain.
Yet, Pandya was not among the cricketers traded by franchises ahead of November 26, 2023, the deadline for all ten teams to reveal their respective lists of retained cricketers. When Gujarat named their retained cricketers, they included Pandya.
However, there was still a chance of Mumbai acquiring Pandya ahead of the auction, for the trading window will remain open until December 12, a week ahead of the auction.
The much-awaited transfer is now confirmed. Pandya will indeed be part of the Mumbai camp at the 2024 IPL, though the exact amount for which they acquired him remains unknown.
Mumbai had a purse of INR 15.25 crore, a mere INR 25 lakh more than the price Gujarat had acquired Pandya for. Even if the additional amount Mumbai had to pay Gujarat does not contribute towards the total purse, they would have been left with very little at the auction.
However, Mumbai also traded Cam Green with Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 17.5 crore to make up for that deficit. In other words, they acquired a superior all-rounder with more IPL experience; as an Indian, will not occupy one of the four overseas slots; and will almost certainly become their next captain – and will have more to spend at the auction.
Meanwhile, Gujarat have named Shubman Gill as their next captain.
