Mumbai Indians in touch with SRH to get Shikhar Dhawan in the trade

Mumbai Indians have already strengthened their batting by signing Quinton de Kock from Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first trade ahead of the IPL season. Now, they are looking to further strengthen it as India opener Shikhar Dhawan is likely to come back to the franchise and join his India opening partner Rohit Sharma at the top of the order in the franchise.

According to reports in Mumbai Mirror, it is understood that Dhawan is not happy in Sunrisers Hyderabad and has expressed his desire to leave. Although he is contractually bound to stay with the franchise for three years, no management ideally wants to keep an unhappy player. Multiple theories have been making the rounds on Dhawan’s seeming disinterest with the Sunrisers. The left-handed India opener apparently had an argument with coach Tom Moody.

The reports also suggested that the franchise is willing to offload Dhawan if they get two good players as a part of the deal before adding that the franchise is in contact with Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab for a deal for the southpaw. "That’s right. If we get a couple of good players as a trade-off, we’re open to it," a Sunrisers official said.

Being one of the top limited-overs player in the country, Dhawan would have wanted his team to retain him ahead of the 2018 IPL auction as the No. 1 or No. 2 player in the franchise, in which case his fees could have run into Rs 10-12 crore. But, the franchise management was not willing to shell out that much, and it released him and bought him back using the ‘right to match’ (RTM) card for just Rs 5.2 crore.

If Dhawan end up playing for Mumbai Indians, skipper Rohit Sharma's presence will be credited for the move as both of them share a good rapport with each other on and off the field.