There is growing speculation that Pandya can be traded out of five-time IPL champion team ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2027 season next year. A few months back there were talks that Pandya could move to MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings (CSK) but that trade hit a major roadblock with the arrival of Zaheer Khan as the new head coach of the Chennai franchise.
It is believed that Hardik Pandya and Zaheer Khan have not been on ‘talking terms’ since the former India pace bowlers stint with the MI team. Now more bad news has come in for the Team India all-rounder as Hardik Pandya’s move to former champions Rajasthan Royals also appears to have been scuppered.
According to a report in Cricbuzz website, MI were working on a trade deal with Rajasthan Royals to trade Hardik Pandya for Mumbai opener Yashasvi Jaiswal. Hardik, who was retained for Rs 16.35 crore by Nita Ambani’s MI ahead of IPL 2026, had joined back the club ahead of 2025 season from Gujarat Titans.
Jaiswal, on the other hand, had been retained for Rs 18 crore by Rajasthan Royals and is believed to have been open on a move to MI. The two teams are believed to have had some discussions a few months back but there was no headway made for the Pandya-Jaiswal swap deal.
The trade would have made sense for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s Royals team, who already have a ready option in South African opener Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who can take over the opener’s role. Pretorius has been in sensational form with the bat in T20 franchise cricket with 465 runs in MLC 2026 season at a strike-rate of over 176 with one century and four fifties to his name.
Pretorius had also scored 226 from four innings at a strike-rate of 179.37 in the T20I tri-series in Namibia and has carried on his bright form in the ongoing SA20, where he scored a blistering 188 not out off 79 deliveries for the Titans against the Knights.
The website also added that potential trades and franchise-level talks could gather steam in the next couple of weeks ahead of November 15 retention deadline. The ‘Pitru Paksha’ period, which is considered inauspicious for major decisions ended earlier this week.
No discussions over return of Rohit Sharma as captain of MI
Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians have categorically denied about discussion on former India captain Rohit Sharma’s return as the skipper of the franchise. The team are in discussions to finalise the coaching setup, including possibly replacing Mahela Jayawardene as the head coach of the team.
The IPL governing council announced the second major trade of the season. Left-arm pacer T. Natarajan has joined his former team Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 5 crore while leg-spinner Zeeshan Ansari will move to Delhi Capitals in his place for Rs 40 lakh.
Earlier, this year Rishabh Pant was traded from Lucknow Super Giants to Delhi Capitals in exchange for Kuldeep Yadav.