Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan reckons the potential trade between Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings for Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh, will make sense for the former.
According to the latest reports, Hardik Pandya and Punjab Kings’ Arshdeep Singh could be swapped. In addition, Punjab Kings will also trade out wicket-keeper batsman Vishnu Vinod to Mumbai Indians.
Under Pandya, Mumbai Indians have managed to qualify for the playoffs on a solitary occasion in the last three seasons. After the conclusion of IPL 2026, it has been reported on multiple occasions that Pandya could part ways with MI.
Pathan said Arshdeep Singh will solve Mumbai Indians’ bowling woes, which they had in IPL 2026.
“This trade makes perfect sense for MI. Arshdeep going to Mumbai will solve a huge bowling problem for them. They’ll get a left-armer who’s an Indian bowler, and on that pitch, Arshdeep will be fantastic with the new ball. It will also allow MI to play Santner or one more spinner regularly. His being there will enable that, and they can play an overseas batter as well,” said Pathan (via ESPN Cricinfo).
On the other hand, Pathan questioned Punjab Kings for showing interest in Hardik Pandya as they already have seam-bowling all-rounders in the squad.
“For Punjab, they already have two all-rounders in Marco Jansen and Azmatullah Omarzai. Though Jansen is a bowling all-rounder, he’s giving runs consistently. And Omarzai is consistently scoring runs as well. So they’ll have three all-rounders. So my question is why Punjab are doing this. If they were doing this four years ago, when Hardik was at his peak, then it would have been fine. But someone with the pure skill of a left-armer like Arshdeep is going to be hard to find,” said Pathan (via the aforementioned source).
IPL 2027 auction will be held in Goa in mid-December.
