Gujarat Titans (GT) captain and India all-rounder Hardik Pandya has been trending on social media for last two days. The reason: he is leaving Titans to rejoin his old team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Mumbai Indians (MI). Various reports stated that Hardik has already signed a deal with MI and the announcement might come on the the last day of the retention.
November 26 was the last day of the rention. By 5 pm IST, all the teams annouced which players they were retaining. Turned out, Gujarat did not release or trade their captain to MI or any other team. The reports turned out to be mere rumours.
Also Read | IPL 2024 Retention Day, Players Retained And Released By GT; Check Here
But what many did not know was that November 26 was the last day to retain players. However, the trading can happen till December 12. The IPL trading window comes to an end one week prior to the auction. This year, the auction is likely to take place in Dubai on December 19.
Here's the IPL 2024 Squad Summary ahead of the #IPL Player Auction __ pic.twitter.com/FD8OO85g5M
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) November 26, 2023
That meant that Hardik could still be traded till December 12. Two hours after Hardik was retained by GT, Cricbuzz reported that Mumbai had signed the deal to trade in Hardik from GT. The social media was abuzz with many Hardik Pandya memes by then.
Some wondered why GT retained Hardik when they had to trade him out. The answer is simple. By the cut off time to announce the retention of players, the deal might not have gone through. GT had to include Pandya in the retained players list. But after a couple of hours, the deal would have been signed.
It is to be noted that neither MI nor GT have officially announced that Hardik has been traded in what turns out to be an all-cash transfer. But because of the fact that MI have traded out Cameron Green (Rs 17.50 crore) to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), it means that MI have added a huge amount to their purse to get back Pandya. One has to wait and watch as to when the deal is officially announced.
A total of 173 players were released across the ten teams. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) released the most number players, a total of 12. On auction day, Rs 262.95 crore will be the total purse with the ten teams to make some purchases.
