India’s T20I captain Hardik Pandya on Sunday returned to his “spiritual home” Mumbai Indians after an all-cash deal trade-off with Gujarat Titans was formally accomplished following 72 hours of intense drama. On Sunday at 5 pm, the IPL retention window was closed and at that time, Gujarat Titans named their IPL-winning captain within the retention listing elevating quite a lot of eyebrows. However it was learnt that the formal paperwork wasn’t but accomplished and therefore IPL and BCCI did not give greenlight of approval for essentially the most anticipated transfer of this switch season. “Yes, Hardik’s trade off got completed after 5 pm. The deal is now formalised and he is a MI player. It’s been a tripartite all cash deal. MI have traded their all-rounder Cameron Green to RCB in an all cash deal. After that they had requisite funds to settle an all-cash deal with Gujarat Titans and procure Hardik’s services,” a senior BCCI official and IPL Governing Council member advised PTI on circumstances of anonymity.

It should be talked about that Green was purchased by MI for a whopping Rs 17.5 crore throughout final public sale and therefore the cash required to purchase Hardik wasn’t out there until that deal was inked.

Pandya was picked by Gujarat Titans earlier than 2022 public sale from the listing of obtainable gamers for the 2 new franchises — GT and Lucknow Super Giants.

His reported price was Rs 15 crore and he led the aspect to back-to-back finals, successful the championship in maiden 12 months and shedding a thriller to CSK in 2023.

Mumbai Indians, who’ve one of the vital systematic workforce constructing course of, have roped in Pandya with a long run plan in thoughts as there will probably be mega public sale in 2025 and each franchise will attempt to construct a brand new workforce with a younger core.

However with India’s ODI and Test captain Rohit Sharma nonetheless very a lot within the combine and maybe franchise’s greatest icon with 5 titles beneath his belt, it will be attention-grabbing what sort of choice the house owners and high administration as regards to management.

This should be talked about that these within the know of issues had an inkling that Pandya after two years at Titans needed to maneuver again to the franchise from the place he had made a reputation and performed seven seasons.

The lure of captaining IPL’s hottest franchise with greatest fan base was additionally a purpose other than constructing his model as a nationwide skipper in one of many codecs.