Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan believes the Mumbai Indians (MI) are ahead in the proposed trade that would send Arshdeep Singh to MI, with Hardik Pandya going to the Punjab Kings (PBKS), claiming the seamer solves the one problem Mumbai could not cover up through IPL 2026 as well. However, the swap, first reported on November 3, would take Hardik Pandya to the Punjab Kings, with Arshdeep and wicketkeeper-batter Vishnu Vinod moving to MI.

“This trade makes perfect sense for MI. Arshdeep going to Mumbai will solve a huge bowling problem for them. They’ll get a left-armer who’s an Indian bowler, and on that pitch, Arshdeep will be fantastic with the new ball. It will also allow MI to play Santner or one more spinner regularly. His being there will enable that, and they can play an overseas batter as well,” said Pathan (via ESPN Cricinfo).

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Meanwhile, he cannot see what the Kings gain by giving up a bowler of Arshdeep Singh’s profile in exchange for Hardik Pandya, who would have to play under Shreyas Iyer rather than lead.

“For Punjab, they already have two all-rounders in Marco Jansen and Azmatullah Omarzai. Though Jansen is a bowling all-rounder, he’s giving runs consistently. And Omarzai is consistently scoring runs as well. So they’ll have three all-rounders. So my question is why Punjab are doing this. If they were doing this four years ago, when Hardik was at his peak, then it would have been fine. But someone with the pure skill of a left-armer like Arshdeep is going to be hard to find,” he concluded.