Hardik Pandya reported to be traded back to his old franchise Mumbai Indians in place of Rohit Sharma or Jofra Archer

The inter-franchise trade of the players is underway ahead of the upcoming auction for the Indian Premier League 2024; the auction for the next edition of the tournament will be held later this year in the end of December. Meanwhile, the trade of players from one franchise to another is also hitting the headlines of both social and mainstream media.

Meanwhile, the media reports have learned about probably the biggest trade ahead of the Indian Premier League 2024. A report in News 18 Cricket Next suggests that the IPL 2022 champions Gujarat Titans might trade their skipper Hardik Pandya with Mumbai Indians to replace him either with MI’s skipper Rohit Sharma or the star England pacer Jofra Archer, who has been the receiving end of the major injury concerns for the last couple of years.

“While details of this transfer are not known as yet, the cricket fraternity is rife with speculations that Pandya’s move to MI could be a direct swap of captains, which means India’s recent World Cup captain Rohit Sharma could either be heading to Gujarat Titans or England pacer and the injury-prone Jofra Archer could make way for Hardik before the all-rounder eventually takes over as captain in 2025,” reads the report in News 18 Cricket Next.

Hardik Pandya could move back to 'home' Mumbai Indians

Earlier before the arrival of the Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League 2022, Pandya was associated with the five-time champions, Mumbai Indians as a star all-rounder and one of the vital cogs in the wheel for the most successful teams in the history of the tournament. Notably, the star all-rounder was bought by Mumbai Indians back in 2015 for an amount of INR 10 lakhs, which was his base price. Later, he performed brilliantly for MI and made his way to the national squad of India; the 30-year-old had also been a part of MI’s IPL champion team in the 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020 editions of the tournament.

Recently, Pandya was also in action for Team India in the earlier phase of the ODI World Cup 2023 before getting injured and ruled out from the tournament due to an injury.