Hardik Pandya returns to Mumbai Indians for IPL 2024.
Hardik Pandya shares video of his IPL journey from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 crore player
He won four IPL titles (2015, 2017, 2019, 2020) with MI and added one more as GT captain, in 2022.
India all-rounder Hardik Pandya on Monday (November 27) returned to his old franchise – Mumbai Indians (MI) ahead of IPL 2024. He was traded by Gujarat Titans (GT) to MI.
On Sunday, the last day for all 10 IPL teams to submit their retention and released players’ lists, saw GT submitting their squad with Hardik in it. However, on Monday morning, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed through a media advisory that Hardik has moved to MI. Also, MI traded all-rounder Cameron Green to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
In an all-cash deal, Hardik was traded by GT to MI. Hardik’s salary is Rs 15 crore, and he had led GT to the title in their debut season – IPL 2022. Last year, he took the team to the final where they lost to Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
After the official trading, Hardik took to social media to post a throwback video and captioned it, “This brings back so many wonderful memories. Mumbai. Wankhede. Paltan. Feels good to be back. #OneFamily @mipaltan (sic).”
The video shows Hardik being bought at IPL auction for Rs 10 lakh by MI as an uncapped player for IPL 2015. He was 21 years of age at the time.
Hardik made his India debut on January 26, 2016 in a T20I against Australia in Adelaide. Same year he won his ODI cap and the following year became a Test player for India.
In eight years’ time since he was bought by MI, Hardik has emerged as one of the best all-rounders not only in the T20 format but in ODIs too. He won four IPL titles (2015, 2017, 2019, 2020) with MI and added one more as GT captain.
Between 2015 and 2021, Hardik played 92 matches for MI and scored 1,476 runs and also took 42 wickets. So far he featured in 123 IPL games.
