On Tuesday, November 10, Indian pacer Arshdeep Singh’s father, Darshan Singh, confirmed a successful trade between Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Mumbai Indians (MI), involving his son and Hardik Pandya.
Arshdeep will now ply his trade for MI, sharing the new ball with Jasprit Bumrah in the forthcoming IPL 2027 season. On the other hand, Hardik will be a part of the PBKS franchise as an all-rounder.
Speaking to journalist Vimal Kumar, Darshan asserted that he was initially surprised to hear the trade news, but added that he was ultimately happy with his son officially going to the MI setup, which will likely be led by Rohit Sharma.
“Humein bhi surprisingly pata laga ki ho gaya trade (Even we were surprised to know that the trade is complete). The intimation has also come now. A person always has love for his native place and doesn’t forget it throughout his life,” Darshan said.
“Kings XI was kind of a native place. You do feel a bit, but every franchise wants to get the balance right, and they traded him. We are very happy with Mumbai Indians also. His former captain is there, and there is Bumrah ji, Suryakumar Yadav ji, so we are very happy,” he added.
On the other hand, the former India cricketer Aakash Chopra reckoned that MI wouldn’t miss Hardik a lot, adding that the Mumbai-based franchise has good enough depth and quality in their batting.
“The Punjab team has made up its mind to let Arshdeep Singh go. Then Arshdeep and Jasprit Bumrah playing for the Mumbai Indians, and either Deepak Chahar or Corbin Bosch with them, and then they have Mitchell Santner and Allah Ghazanfar in spin bowling. It’s a serious attack. Will they miss Hardik? Kill me for saying this, they won’t miss him as much. You know how much I like Hardik Pandya, but the truth is that they will manage,” Chopra said.
“If you see their batting, Rohit Sharma comes with either Ryan Rickelton or Quinton de Kock. Then you have Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Sherfane Rutherford to bat in the middle, and Naman Dhir. You have depth and quality in batting. You can now play Will Jacks easily,” he added.
