IPL trading window explained: How it facilitated Hardik Pandya to likely swap from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians

According to reports, Gujarat Titans’s captain and India’s star all-rounder is moving back to his old franchise through the IPL trading window in an all-cash deal of 15 crores and a trading fee whose amount is undisclosed. The trading window of the IPL closes on the 26th of November and we will get a confirmation on this by the 26th.

Hardik Pandya was scouted by Mumbai Indians way back in 2015 which nurtured him to become the all-rounder that he is now. He won 4 IPL titles with Mumbai Indians in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020 but was released by Mumbai ahead of the 2022 Mega IPL Auctions.

At that, it was in news that Pandya wanted to lead the franchise but things didn’t work out his way, as they already had an experienced captain, Rohit Sharma. Hardik was then picked up by the new IPL entrant Gujarat Titans as the first pool of players before the mega auction for 15 crores made him the captain of the franchise. Pandya led Gujarat to their first IPL title in their first-ever IPL season and secured them a second position in their 2nd IPL in 2023.

What is an IPL trading window and how does it work?

All the IPL franchises have to release a list of players they have retained and released before the IPL Auction for the next year’s IPL. Before finalizing their list of released and retained players, franchises can trade players among themselves till a specific period before the auction. This mechanism of trading players between IPL franchises is called the IPL trading window.

The trading of players can happen in two ways:

1. IPL franchises can swap one or more players among themselves after consulting the respective players.
2. IPL franchises can buy players from other franchises in an all-cash deal. In an all-cash deal, the purchasing team pays the original auction price of the player plus an additional undisclosed amount known as the trading fee. Half of this trading fee is shared with the player.

The franchises does this to either strengthen the balance of their teams or add more amount to their purse before the main auction as the sum of the amount of released players is added to their purse.

What is the closing date of the IPL trading window?

This year’s IPL trading window was supposed to close on the 19th of November but BCCI extended the closing date to November 26 as the ODI World Cup 2023 final was to take place on the same day.

What if two or more franchises are behind the same player?

In instances where two franchises express interest in acquiring a player from another team, the selling franchise holds the authority to decide which team they want to sell the player to.

How many players have been traded in the IPL 2024 trading window?

In the lead-up to the trading window's closure, two trades have been finalized. West Indies all-rounder Romario Shepherd has been traded from Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) to Mumbai Indians (MI), while LSG has also swapped Avesh Khan for Devdutt Padikkal in another deal.