Mumbai Indians finished in 9th place in the IPL 2026 season under the captaincy of all-rounder Hardik Pandya earlier this year.
Published: October 29, 2026, 2:17 PM IST
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Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya(Photo: ANI)
IPL 2027: The Player Retention deadline is fast closing in ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2027With the IPL 2027 mini auction set to take place December 16 in Goa, all 10 IPL teams will have to finalise their retentions by November 15 – the IPL 2027 Retention DayOne Indian cricketer who has bee the biggest topic of discussion in this trading window has been Mumbai Indians captain and all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
The Baroda all-rounder’s move back to Mumbai has not been a happy one in the last couple of seasonsIn two seasons with Gujarat Titans, Hardik had led them to the title once and reached the final in the subsequent seasonBut at MI, he only has a 42.4 per cent win-loss record with 14 wins and 19 losses in 33 matches in charge.
Under Hardik, MI failed to qualify for the Playoffs stages in IPL 2026 earlier this year as they finished in 9th place with just 4 wins in the seasonRetained for Rs 16.35 crore by Nita Ambani’s MI, Hardik could be on his way out before the 2027 season.
According to IPL trade rumours, Chennai Super Kings are one team who are interested in bringing Hardik Pandya on board through a possible tradeBut Ravichandran Ashwin believes that Hardik Pandya can be offered Kolkata Knight Riders or Rajasthan Royals captaincy if he moves to these sides.
“KKR have great potential because Hardik can also become the captain thereThey could offer Varun Chakaravarthy for himBut as long as Abhishek Nayar is there, I don’t think Varun will move from KKRHarshit Rana and Rinku Singh could be other optionsWith RR (Rajasthan Royals), it could be Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sam Curran, or Brijesh Sharma or Tushar DeshpandeIt could also be Jaiswal with Yash Raj Punja or Bishnoi,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
HARDIK PANDYA TRADE BUZZ!
– CSK and five other IPL franchises reportedly want Hardik.
– Two former champions have renewed interest.
– Teams are exploring player-for-player deals; some may offer two players.
– But Mumbai Indians won’t let him go easily! https://t.co/6LxM0LReno
— Ahmad Haseeb (@iamAhmadhaseeb) October 28, 2026
On possible cricketers that Mumbai Indians may need in the Hardik Pandya trade, Ashwin felt that the five-time former winners need an Indian wicketkeeper-batter.
“MI desperately need an Indian keeperThey will also look to strengthen their bowling, which has been dismal the last few yearsPBKS with Omarzai could interest MINo one is talking about GT, but they could get involved by giving Rashid Khan for Hardik,” Ashwin said.
The former CSK all-rounder also believes that in addition to the above-mentioned teams, there are other teams in the race for Pandya as well.
“There are as many as six teams in battle for Hardik Pandya, is what I hearBut I don’t think that’s the case, as LSG aren’t in the raceIt’s mainly CSK (Chennai Super Kings), KKR, RR, GT (Gujarat Titans) and PBKS (Punjab Kings)I also think captaincy isn’t a must for Hardik anymore in his next franchiseHe will just want to go to the ideal franchise for him, as he’s keen to move on from MI,” said Ashwin
The 33-year-old all-rounder has scored 2955 runs in 162 matches in his IPL career at a strike-rate of 146.28 and also claimed 82 wicketsBut in IPL 2026, Hardik only managed to score 206 runs in 10 games at an average of 22.88 and only managed to pick up 4 wickets.
