IPL 2024 trade timeline: How Hardik Pandya’s historic Mumbai Indians homecoming unfolded

The much-talked-about trade is no more a rumour. The Indian Premier League confirmed on Monday that Hardik Pandya was traded to Mumbai Indians by Gujarat Titans in an all-cash deal, ending the week-long speculation that dominated headlines. It’s a historic deal as Hardik Pandya became only the 3rd captain to be traded after R Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane and the first title-winning skipper to be involved in a trade deal.

Yes, the trading window has seen some high-profile moves in the past, but Hardik Pandya and Cameron Green’s moves can prove to be a landmark moment in IPL history as more teams would be willing to swap players, and impact the relevance of auctions in the future.

IPL 2024: Full Retentions Wrap

Hardik Pandya moved from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians with the 2022 champions receiving Rs 15 crore in their purse for the IPL 2024 auction. Meanwhile, Rs 17.5 crore was deducted from the purse of Royal Challengers Bangalore and added to Mumbai Indians after the Cameron Green deal was confirmed. Both the trade deals did not involve any swapping of players but was all-cash deals.

Also Read: Hardik Pandya reacts after returning to MI

Quite a few expressed surprise when speculation arose about a potential Hardik Pandya return to Mumbai Indians. Many wondered why Hardik would leave Gujarat Titans where he first tasted success as captain in the IPL and evolved into becoming India’s stand-in T20I captain.

All eyes were on Hardik Pandya on Sunday, the retention deadline day. Quite a few were surprised to see Hardik Pandya being retained by Gujarat Titans on deadline day and a few even questioned the authenticity of the reports.

However, Sunday only saw the deadline day for retentions while the trading window for IPL 2024 was open until December 12, a week before the mini-auction on December 19.

India Today confirmed Hardik Pandya’s all-cash trade to Mumbai Indians on Sunday evening and Cameron Green’s move to Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Here’s how the timeline of events that led to the biggest trade of IPL history: Hardik Pandya to Mumbai Indians

• A couple of months before the retention deadline, Hardik Pandya sounded off his interest to head back to Mumbai Indians to the Gujarat Titans franchise owners and top brass
• Speculation was rife about Hardik Pandya returning to Mumbai Indians a week before the retention deadline day.
• Questions were asked of Rohit Sharma’s future while a few even speculated that the India captain would go to Gujarat Titans
• However, it emerged later that Hardik Pandya would move to MI only in an all-cash trade deal
• Much to the surprise of many, Hardik Pandya was retained by Gujarat Titans on th retention deadline day
• Mumbai Indians, meanwhile, retained Rohit Sharma, putting an end to all rumours
• Gujarat retained Hardik to facilitate the trade as players in the auction pool can’t be traded
• The delay in the confirmation of the trade was because Mumbai Indians were looking to free-up money for the Hardik trade
• Mumbai Indians, who were left with just Rs 5 lakh after IPL 2023 auction, had to make room to bring back their homegrown all-rounder.
• Mumbai Indians released as many as 11 players, including Jofra Archer, Tristan Stubbs, Duan Jansen, Jhye Richardson, Riley Meredith, Chris Jordan on November 26
• Despite releasing 11 players, Mumbai Indians were left with a purse of Rs 15.5 crore for the IPL mini auction
• However, after approaching RCB successfully for the trade of Cameron Green, MI were able to bring Hardik Pandya back
• RCB had Rs 40.75 crore left in their purse after the retentions and they had Rs 17.5 crore to spend on Green
• Even after bringing Hardik Pandya, MI have Rs 17.75 crore which they can use at the mini-auction
• It remains to be seen if Hardik will lead MI in IPL 2024 as Rohit looks set to continue leading the side at least for one more season

It’s hard to understand why Hardik Pandya, who found success as captain at Gujarat Titans, chose to return to Mumbai Indians. It remains to be seen if there was transfer fee for the move and whether the India all-rounder got a share of it.

While Shubman Gill was named as captain of the Gujarat Titans on Monday, it remains to be seen if and when Hardik will lead MI.

Former India captain Kris Srikkanth, meanwhile, said that Hardik Pandya might captain MI as early as IPL 2024 and Rohit Sharma, 36, will look to ensure a smooth transition. Rohit led India to the World Cup final a week ago and he has not yet cleared the air around his T20I future despite not playing the format since the start of 2023.

MI SQUAD AHEAD OF IPL 2024 AUCTION

Retained players: Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Piyush Chawla, Akash Madhwal, Nehal Wadhera, Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Vishnu Vinod, Shams Mulani, Arjun Tendulkar, Tim David, Dewald Brevis, Jason Behrendorff, Romario Shepherd (traded in from LSG), Hardik Pandya (traded in from GT)

Released players: Jofra Archer, Tristan Stubbs, Duan Jansen, Jhye Richardson, Ramandeep Singh, Raghav Goyal, Arshad Khan, Hrithik Shokeen, Sandeep Warrier (replacement for Jasprit Bumrah), Chris Jordan (replacement for Jofra Archer), Riley Meredith (replacement for Jhye Richardson), Cameron Green (traded to RCB)