Even as the Gujarat Titans (GT) try to recover from the loss of Hardik Pandya, Colonel Arvinder Singh, the club’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), claims that a franchise contacted their star bowler Mohammed Shami personally.
When the Titans’ retention list was released, Pandya, who captained GT in the first two seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL), was retained. Not long after, however, news surfaced that the all-rounder had been moved to the Mumbai Indians (MI). A day later, the transaction was formally verified.
In an interview with News18, Gujarat Titans COO Singh said that a franchise approached Shami as well. Singh expressed dissatisfaction with teams approaching players personally, as reported by NDTV:
“Every franchise has the right to go for top players. The wrong part is that if an IPL franchise directly approaches a player. The method is wrong and the GT team management is not happy with the approach. The BCCI’s rule regarding player trade-odds, how the expression of interest cane be made to BCCI and then they will inform us. Then the franchise decides
“This IPL team approached our coaching staff which is wrong. If they wanted the transfer, they could have talked to us upfront. We got to know about the approach later on.”
Arvinder Singh
Mohammed Shami had an outstanding IPL 2023 season, taking 28 wickets in 17 games at an average of 18.64 and an economy rate of 8.03.
Pandya wanted to return to MI, Gujarat Titans Team Director Vikram Solanki confirms
Earlier, Gujarat Titans Team Director Vikram Solanki said that Pandya had shown desire in being sold to his former IPL side, the Mumbai Indians. Solanki hailed the all-rounder in an official statement on the trade, saying:
“As the first captain of Gujarat Titans, Hardik Pandya has helped the franchise deliver two fantastic seasons that resulted in winning one IPL championship and one appearance in the final.
“He has now expressed a desire to return to his original team Mumbai Indians. We respect his decision and wish him all the very best in his future endeavours.”
Vikram Solanki
The Gujarat Titans, an IPL team that debuted in the 2022 season, had Pandya as a key player. In the team’s inaugural season in the T20 league, he guided it to championship victory. Gujarat finished second in the IPL 2023 under Pandya, losing to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the championship match.