Former Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said that veteran all-rounder Hardik Pandya will return to the Gujarat Titans (GT) for IPL 2027 as well. Hardik has dominated the off-season after his poor IPL 2026 campaign as Mumbai Indians (MI) captain. After being associated with several franchises during the ongoing trading window, Hardik Pandya was recently reported to have shared his desire to return to GT. Under him, they made back-to-back finals in their first two IPL seasons in 2022 and 2023 and won the title in their maiden season in 2022 as well.
Talking about this, Ashwin said on his YouTube channel: “It’s not a bad thing that Hardik has reached out to GT. He really enjoyed his time there and the best phase of his career came at GT, be it batting or captaincy. I still have a hunch that he’ll go to GT. Shubman Gill can still be the captain. I won’t fault Hardik for leaving GT despite winning with them as captaining one of the best franchises in the world in MI is great payback. Everyone will say okay for the opportunity to captain a franchise like MI.”
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“So he made a call which was in the right interest for himself and that call did not pan out well. But Hardik can really find a happy place to go back if MI trade him to GT and they get a good package in return. He has had happy memories with GT. He might even want to prove a point that despite not winning with MI this time, he can win again with GT. That tenacity and fight are what define a cricketer. So he could think that way,” he shared again.
Ravichandran Ashwin also said that Hardik Pandya will not regain captaincy with GT even if they decide to trade for him in the IPL off-season as well. After his departure, GT appointed Shubman Gill as captain ahead of IPL 2024. Following a poor first season as captain in 2024, Gill has led GT to back-to-back playoff appearances, including the final this season.
“GT is a great place for him to go to, given that it’s a good batting wicket there and he has had great memories there. The team is also very good, with Shubman Gill captaining very well the last two years. So I don’t think he’ll get the captaincy. But if given an opportunity, Hardik should consider going back to GT, and I feel there is a good chance of it happening,” Ravichandran Ashwin concluded.
