Delhi: Before IPL 2027, a big news is coming from the cricket world. Five-time champion Mumbai Indians is going to change its captain. According to the report of Cricinfo, Mumbai Indians are preparing to trade their captain Hardik Pandya to Punjab Kings.

Instead, Punjab's star left arm fast bowler Arshdeep Singh will enter the Mumbai Indians team. Both the teams have agreed to this trade and now the written approval of the players is awaited.

Hardik Pandya will be a part of Punjab Kings

Let us tell you that even before the end of IPL 2026, continuous talks were going on between Hardik and Mumbai Indians. Ultimately Hardik clearly told the franchise that he wanted to separate from the team. After this, Mumbai discussed the trade with all the other teams except RCB.

Hardik did not like the captaincy of Mumbai Indians

Let us tell you that this is the second time for Hardik that he is becoming a part of the trade. Earlier, before IPL 2024, Mumbai had traded him to Gujarat Titans and made him the captain in place of Rohit Sharma. But Hardik's journey with Mumbai as captain was not special. Under his captaincy, Mumbai won only 15 out of 39 matches and lost 24. At the same time, his performance as a player was also very shameful.

Why does Mumbai want Arshdeep Singh?

Mumbai Indians team stood at 9th position in IPL 2026. The team was in dire need of an excellent fast bowler to accompany Jasprit Bumrah. Trent Boult, who was bought for Rs 12.5 crore in the 2025 auction, was a complete flop last season and could play only 5 matches. In such a situation, with the arrival of Arshdeep, Mumbai's fast bowling will become very strong. Arshdeep has taken 111 wickets in 96 matches for Punjab since his debut in 2019.

Mumbai Indians also made major changes in the coaching staff.

Along with changing the captain, Mumbai Indians have also completely changed their support staff. Former veteran all-rounder Kieron Pollard will now be the head coach of the team. Apart from them, Robin Uthappa has been made the batting coach, Mitchell McClenaghan has been made the bowling coach and T Dilip has been made the fielding coach.