Mumbai Indians get Shardul Thakur & Sherfane Rutherford in the Trade Window ahead of IPL 2026 Mini Auction

Indian star all-rounder Shardul Thakur and West Indies’ Sherfane Rutherford have joined the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the trading window ahead of IPL 2026.

Mumbai Indians have reached an agreement in principle with Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) to acquire Thakur for Rs 2 crore through an all-cash trade deal. Rutherford has been bought from the Gujarat Titans (GT) for Rs 2.6 crore, the same amount for which the Gujarat Titans bought him in the last auction.

Player	Trade	Teams
Shardul Thakur	2 Crore	LSG to MI
Sherfane Rutherford	2.6 Crore	GT to MI

Joining the Mumbai Indians is a homecoming for Thakur. He was a support bowler for the Mumbai Indians from 2010-12, and he also served as Mumbai’s domestic captain this season.

This is Thakur’s third trade in the IPL; in 2017, Rising Pune Supergiant bought him from Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings), and ahead of the 2023 season, the Kolkata Knight Riders acquired him from the Delhi Capitals. Both of these trades were also all-cash deals.

Thakur, who went unsold in the 2025 mega auction, was set to join Essex in the County Championship. However, LSG bought him for his base price of ₹2 crore (approximately Rs 2 crore) as a replacement for Mohsin Khan. It looked like a good investment for LSG, as he took six wickets in his first two matches in IPL 2025. However, Thakur struggled thereafter, playing only ten matches and taking 13 wickets at an economy rate of 11.02.

Rutherford will now be joining his fourth IPL team, having previously represented Delhi Capitals (2019), RCB (2022) and Gujarat Titans last season. Although he was also a part of the Mumbai Indians team in 2020 and the Kolkata Knight Riders team in 2024, he did not get a chance to play a single match in those seasons. In the last season, he played 13 matches for the Gujarat Titans, in which he scored 291 runs at an average of 32.22 and a strike rate of 157.29.

Mumbai Indians to part ways with Arjun Tendulkar

Amidst the ongoing player trade war among IPL teams, one more piece of news is coming out from the Mumbai Indians dugout. Arjun Tendulkar, son of legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, may separate from the Mumbai Indians. According to media reports, Lucknow Super Giants may take him from Mumbai on a cash deal.

                                               

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