Hardik Pandya had replaced Rohit Sharma as MI captain before the IPL 2024 season.
The BCCI rolled out the retention guidelines for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season last month, and now the ball is in the team’s court to make the tricky decisions.
All eyes are on Mumbai Indians (MI) as they have Suryakumar Yadav – India’s current T20I captain, Rohit Sharma - the T20 World Cup winning skipper, Hardik Pandya - their designated captain, and senior fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah in their ranks.
Notably, Rohit was sacked as captain by the MI management ahead of the IPL 2024 season. He was replaced by Hardik, who was traded in from Gujarat Titans. Hence, there have long been speculations that the five-time champions might release their former skipper ahead of the upcoming mega-auction.
Meanwhile, a report published in The Indian Express suggests that Rohit is likely to be one of the four players retained by the franchise.
According to the report, Hardik, Bumrah, and Suryakumar will also feature in Mumbai’s retention list. It also claimed that MI will aim to buy wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan at the auction and use the RTM for Australian hard-hitter Tim David.
Talking about the IPL retention rules, each of the 10 franchises can retain up to six cricketers, through the retention and Right To Match (RTM) option.
The auction purse for the franchises has been set at INR 120 crore. The first three retentions will see the auction purse being reduced by Rs 18 crore, Rs 14 crore and Rs 11 crore, respectively. However, the two other additional retentions will cost more than the third. The fourth and the fifth retentions will see a reduction of Rs 18 crore and Rs 14 crore, respectively.
It means a team will see its auction purse reduced by a whopping Rs 75 crore on five players, with only Rs 45 crore left in its kitty for the IPL auction. October 31 is the deadline for retentions ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction.