Can Hardik Pandya still return to Mumbai Indians from Gujarat Titans after the retention day?

The trade could still happen as the window is open up to seven days prior to the auction. This year, the player auction is scheduled to be held in Dubai on December 19.

Hardik Pandya pictured in Mumbai Indians’ colours in 2020. | Photo Credit: PTI Photo/Sportzpics for BCCI

Gujarat Titans retained its captain Hardik Pandya ahead of the Indian Premier League auction, despite speculations that the India all-rounder would move back to his former franchise Mumbai Indians.

However, the trade could still happen as the window is open up to seven days prior to the auction. This year, the player auction is scheduled to be held in Dubai on December 19.

Moreover, the trade window would again be open from the day after the Player Auction until 30 days prior to the start of a new season. Players who are bought in an auction cannot be traded for that season, more specifically immediately following an auction.

But should that happen, it would be a player-for-player swap. In the past, there have been such instances, and it needs to be seen whether the five-time champion MI finally manages to bring Pandya on board as a prospective leader for future editions.

The Rohit Sharma-led MI has released a chunk of players—Arshad Khan, Ramandeep Singh, Hrithik Shokeen, Raghav Goyal, Jofra Archer, Tristan Stubbs, Duan Jansen, Jhye Richardson, Riley Meredith, Chris Jordan and Sandeep Warrier—helping it to have a larger purse (Rs 15.25 crore) leading up to the auction.

However, MI and GT could still be engaged in conversations over Pandya, even though none of the franchises have any official statements to offer at this point on this issue.

According to the guidelines issued to the franchises, which  Sportstar has access to, during the trading window, a franchise can send a list of the players contracted to other outfits who they wish to acquire via a trade to the BCCI, and then, the Board will inform the respective franchises about an Expression of Interest (EoI) that it has received for a certain player.

Accordingly, the relevant franchise needs to decide whether it is interested in making the player available for trade and, if so, it shall confirm such interest by email to the Board within 48 hours of the receipt of the EoI.

If no confirmation is received within the 48-hour period, the EoI shall be rejected. And if the confirmation is sent within the deadline, the player needs to sign a consent form that specifies the percentage of any increase in the annual league fee to be negotiated as part of the trade.

However, the player percentage should never be more than half the negotiated increase.

Pandya began his IPL career at MI after he was roped in for Rs. 10 lakh as an uncapped player in 2015. He was part of Mumbai’s title-winning seasons in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020, before being released by the franchise after 2021.

He led the GT to its maiden IPL title in 2022 and also guided the team to the final last season before it lost to the Chennai Super Kings.

If the trade goes through, Hardik will be the third captain to be traded. Ahead of the 2020 season, Delhi Capitals traded in Ravichandran Ashwin from the Punjab Kings and Ajinkya Rahane from the Rajasthan Royals.