‘Maan Gaye Ambani sahab’ – Fans react as Mumbai Indians set to trade Hardik Pandya in huge all-cash trade with Gujarat Titans for IPL 2023

In what seems to be a piece of stunning news for the fans of the Indian Premier League, especially two franchises, Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians, the star all-rounder Hardik Pandya’s massive full-cash trade has been confirmed for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League 2024.

Interestingly, in a strange line of events, Gujarat Titans will not be swapping any player in response to the big ‘Hardik Pandya’ trade with Mumbai Indians; it is because the IPL 2022 champions, Gujarat Titans will get an amount of INR 15 crores in return to release Hardik Pandya from their IPL squad.

Notably, Hardik Pandya led Gujarat Titans in two brilliant and successful editions for the team in the Indian Premier League 2022 and 2023, respectively. It was IPL 2022 when the Titans made their debut in the tournament and the Hardik Pandya-led side won the title in their first-ever IPL season. In the succeeding year, they made it to the final of the Indian Premier League 2023, which was their second successive appearance in the summit clash of the tournament.

“Barring any last-minute changes, Hardik Pandya is set to leave Gujarat Titans and return to Mumbai Indians, where he started his IPL career in 2015. ESPNcricinfo has learned the trade is an all-cash deal comprising Mumbai paying INR 15 crore ($1.8 million approx.) as Hardik’s salary and an undisclosed transfer fee to Titans. Hardik stands to earn up to 50% of the transfer fee,” reads a report in ESPNcricinfo.

Hardik Pandya’s golden run with Gujarat Titans comes to an end

Speaking of his performances as a player during his tenure of two seasons, Haridk scored 833 runs with the bat in 30 innings. He has a brilliant average of 41.65; apart from this, the star celebrated all-rounder also picked 11 wickets with the ball, while bowling amidst the ankle injury concerns.

With this trade, the 30-year-old will also be the third skipper in the history of the tournament to get traded; earlier, Ravichandran Ashwin from Punjab Kings to Delhi Capitals and Ajinkya Rahane from Rajasthan Royals to Delhi Capitals were two known trades of the ‘captains’.

Here’s how fans reacted to the shocking return of Hardik Pandya to Mumbai Indians:

https://twitter.com/shiv0037/status/1728119175309132265?s=20

https://twitter.com/wtfflok/status/1728121545695064163