Mumbai Indians In Negotiation With Sunrisers Hyderabad To Buy Shikhar Dhawan

Three-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians are reportedly eyeing a sensational swoop for Sunrisers Hyderabad and India star Shikhar Dhawan.

The upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) could see one of the most dangerous limited-overs combinations joining hands together. India stars Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan could play for the same team in the upcoming edition of the IPL. As per reports in Mumbai Mirror, Mumbai Indians are currently negotiating with Sunrisers Hyderabad to secure the services of their opener Shikhar Dhawan.

The report claimed that Dhawan is unhappy with the franchise and has already stated that he wants to leave. Dhawan’s contract will end after three years but the franchise would not really want to keep an unhappy player.

With nothing confirmed at the moment, several theories are circulating over the opener’s seeming disinterest with the Sunrisers. One theory is that he had an argument with head coach Tom Moody while another one is that he is not happy with the fee he is getting from the franchise.

Dhawan reportedly wanted to be retained as the No. 1 or No. 2 player in the franchise. In such a case, his fees could have run into Rs 10-12 crore. However, the franchise released him before buying him back using the ‘right to match’ (RTM) card. His eventual price at the auction was Rs 5.2 crore.

The fees is considerably lower than what the likes of  Virat Kohli (Rs 17 crore), Rohit Sharma (Rs 15 crore), MS Dhoni (Rs 15 crore) and several others are earning. Even the likes of Jaydev Unadkat (Rs 11.5 crore), KL Rahul (11 crore), Manish Pandey (11 crore), Glenn Maxwell (Rs 9 crore) and Krunal Pandya (Rs 8.8 crore) earn more than Dhawan.

A top Sunrisers official admitted to being in discussions with Mumbai Indians to trade Dhawan.

“That’s right. If we get a couple of good players as a trade-off, we’re open to it,”  he said.

It should be noted that Dhawan had played for Mumbai Indians in 2009 and 2010 before being signed by now-defunct Deccan Chargers.

The IPL trading window is currently open and will remain so till a week before the auction. The auction is likely to take place in mid-December. Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians have already bought Quinton de Kock from Royal Challengers Bangalore. They have also sold bowlers Mustafizur Rahman and Akila Dananjaya.