Hardik Pandya bowled 22.4 overs in IPL 2026, and Mumbai Indians should trade him before 15 November
Reports say Mumbai Indians have discussed a Hardik Pandya trade with other franchises. With retentions due in a fortnight, they should go through with it.
Oct 31, 2026
Mumbai Indians have until 15 November to lodge their retention list, and the biggest name on it is the one they have the least idea what to do with. Hardik Pandya has captained them for three seasons. Two of those ended in the bottom two. He has not played a competitive game since 24 May.
Since early October, Cricbuzz has reported that MI have fielded enquiries about him and held talks with Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders, that they are in no hurry, and that any deal is a long way from done. Back in August, before any of that, an MI official told Sportstar the franchise was not in trade talks while its post-season review went on. Nothing has been announced since. But the question is out there now, and I think MI should answer it by letting him go.
Three seasons, one good one
The numbers are not kind. In 2024, the year Hardik came back from Gujarat Titans and took the armband from Rohit Sharma, he made 216 runs at 18 and took 11 wickets at 35. MI finished last.
In 2025 he was very good. He scored 224 runs at a strike rate of 163.50, took 14 wickets with a five-for among them, and MI reached the playoffs before going out to Punjab Kings in Qualifier 2. That season is the whole case for keeping him, and it is a real one.
Then 2026 happened. Back spasms kept him out of three games in May, and he played ten of the 14. In those ten he made 206 runs at a strike rate of 138.26 and took four wickets at 64.75, going at 11.43 an over. MI won four of their 14 matches and finished ninth.
The body keeps saying no
What has happened since worries me more than the numbers. Hardik has been at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru since early June. A quadriceps strain there ruled him out of the Afghanistan ODIs. In September he could not get through the ten overs he needed in a fitness test, picked up a shin injury in the next one, and scans found a bone stress response in his right shin. That cost him the India A one-dayers against Australia A. He is not in either of India’s squads for New Zealand.
He turned 33 this month. Gautam Gambhir’s case for waiting on him is that “very few teams have a player like that who can bowl 10 overs for you, plus bat at number six or seven”. That is true. It is also the part his body keeps refusing. An MI side paying him ₹16.35 crore is paying for the bowling, and it got 22.4 overs of it last season.
The captaincy question has already been asked
Kieron Pollard was asked about Hardik’s leadership after the last game of the season. He was still batting coach then, and he said the captaincy had not gone as well as Hardik himself would have wanted, and that it “might not have gone” the way the management staff wanted either. Pollard is now the head coach. It is hard to read that and believe the armband is safe.
A Hardik who stays at MI without the captaincy is a strange arrangement for everyone, and an expensive one for MI. A Hardik traded somewhere that wants him as captain, the way Gujarat did when he won them the title in their first season in 2022, might be a better player for it.
Take a real player back
None of this means giving him away. MI should want a younger player who will still be in the side in 2030, not a pile of cash or a squad filler. If nobody offers that before 15 November, keeping him for one more year is not a disaster, and 2025 shows what he can still do when he is fit.
But MI have just rebuilt their coaching staff around old faces. Pollard’s first big decision as head coach is due in 15 days, and moving Hardik on is the one call that would tell everyone the rebuild is real.