IPL 2026: Michael Vaughan suggests audacious swap deal between MI and KKR involving Hardik Pandya

Former England captain Michael Vaughan has suggested that the Mumbai Indians (MI) release captain Hardik Pandya and replace him with Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) Cameron Green for the 2027 Indian Premier League (IPL) season. 

MI suffered yet another defeat in this season’s IPL, losing to KKR in their penultimate game of the season at the Eden Gardens. The defeat has piled more misery on Hardik’s role in the side, not only as an all-rounder, but also as the captain.

Vaughan strongly wants MI to end their experiment with Hardik as their captain by releasing him sooner rather than later. The former England batter has suggested that the five-time champions trade the Indian all-rounder and bring in Cameron Green back from the Knight Riders. The main rationale behind the thought process involved KKR’s possible need for a new captain in the future.  

“Release. Replace him with Cameron Green. If he wants to carry on as captain, then he’d better be with a fresh set of captains. Maybe KKR. Kolkata will be looking for a new captain. That is why the Green-Hardik swap,” Michael Vaughan said on the Cricbuzz show. 

It is worth mentioning that Green made his IPL debut for MI back in 2023. He went on to score 452 runs from 16 matches, at a strike-rate of 160.28. This included scoring an unbeaten century against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium. The Australian international also took six wickets with the ball.

When MI traded Hardik from the Gujarat Titans ahead of the 2024 IPL season, the management was forced to trade Green away to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. The Australian international only played one season in Karnataka before joining KKR for a whopping INR 25.20 crore at the 2026 mini auction. 

MI under Hardik’s captaincy have failed to qualify for the playoffs twice in three seasons. They finished at the foot of the standings in 2024 and are on course to end the 2026 campaign at the bottom or second bottom. The only season where they made it through to the last four was in 2025, where they reached Qualifier 2, only to lose to the Punjab Kings. 

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