Former Indian chairman of selectors and commentator Kris Srikkanth has shared his views on the trade of Mumbai Indians (MI) veteran all-rounder Hardik Pandya ahead of the IPL 2027 mini-auction.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Srikkanth has asserted that Rinku Singh and Harshit Rana should be traded to the Mumbai Indians (MI) with Hardik heading to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
While Rinku managed to score only 295 runs from 11 innings at a strike rate of 148.99 in the IPL 2026 season, Harshit Rana was ruled out of the whole season due to an injury, which he sustained ahead of the T20 World Cup 2026 campaign.
“Rinku Singh is a decent player, nothing extraordinary. Harshit Rana is a good bowler. But if Hardik is willing to join KKR, I would give up both of them. They also have to rebuild their side. Rinku Singh won’t be a great loss for them. Harshit Rana might be a huge loss for them. But Harshit also didn’t have a great IPL last year. He was good only the year before that,” Kris Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.
Furthermore, the former Indian cricketer also insisted that MI shouldn’t trade Hardik to the Delhi Capitals (DC) for Axar Patel and to the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for Travis Head. In the IPL 2026 season, Axar scored 173 runs and scalped 11 wickets with an economy rate of 8.18. On the other hand, Head scored 410 runs from 15 games.
“MI shouldn’t go for it. Why will they go for Axar Patel and say “Prithvi Shaw” or someone? There is no scope with that. Also, I won’t trade for Head if I were MI, as he doesn’t fit with MI,” he added.
In the IPL 2026 season, Hardik Pandya scored 206 runs and took 4 wickets across 10 matches during a tough campaign in which MI finished ninth in the standings.
