Former India cricketer Suresh Raina was asked about the players Mumbai Indians (MI) should retain and release ahead of the IPL 2026 auction. The five-time IPL champions MI will love to make the best decisions, as despite making it into the IPL 2025 playoffs, their performance was not on par.

MI last won the Indian Premier League (IPL) title in 2021, and since then, a lot has changed for them. IPL 2023 saw Rohit Sharma struggle with MI players suffering injuries and him working with a new bowling lineup. Then, in IPL 2024, MI gave their fans a huge shock when they traded Hardik Pandya from the Gujarat Titans and then made him captain, replacing Rohit Sharma.

The backlash was intense, and MI finished 10th in the points table. Things got better, and MI got the support they needed from their fans after Hardik Pandya’s role in India’s T20 World Cup 2024 win, and he did well in IPL 2025.

Now Suresh Raina has suggested that the Mumbai Indians should hold onto Rohit Sharma, given his experience and now his batting without captaincy pressure. However, Raina also stated that MI should let go of England’s Will Jacks and Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

“They should hold him (Rohit Sharma); he has won a lot of trophies for them. Deepak Chahar is just in; it depends on what options they have, so they can either release him or retain him, but they might not get players at the auction, so I think they should retain him. They should retain him (Trent Boult); he is a gun player. With the advantage that he has as a left-arm bowler, they should retain him,” Raina said on Star Sports.

Jacks had made his IPL debut for RCB in IPL 2024 and scored 230 runs in eight appearances at a strike rate of 175.57. Then MI bought him for INR 5.25 crores, and Jacks made 233 runs in 13 games, but the strike rate dropped to 135.47.

On the other hand, Rohit Sharma recorded 400-plus runs in the last two seasons and a strike rate at around 150. He also scored his second IPL century in the 2024 season.