Mumbai Indians (MI) decided to retain five Indian players which was unveiled on Thursday (October 31) – the final date to announce the retention list.
The MI think had a tough task at hand since 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 were in their ranks.
As it turned out, the five-time champions retained all four of besides the emerging star Tilak Varma. MI spent a total of INR 75 crore on their five retentions -- Bumrah (INR 18 crore), Suryakumar (INR 16.35 crore), Hardik (INR 16.35 crore), Rohit (INR 16.30 crore) and Tilak (INR 8 crore).
After the retention list was released, star opener Rohit said he was thrilled to be part of the MI camp again.
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 were speculations that the franchise might release their former skipper ahead of the mega auction.
“I have played so much cricket for Mumbai Indians. Mumbai is the place where I have started my cricket career. So, this city is very, very special. I am happy to be here. We haven’t had the best of the season in the last two or three years. But we are quite determined to change that. We will be looking forward to each other’s help. And hopefully, we can turn things around,” Rohit said in a video shared by MI on X.
“Mumbai Indians has a rich history of winning trophies, winning games out of unbelievable situations. Since I have retired from the format, I think this is the perfect spot for me. The players who are representing the national team at the highest level should get the preference. It’s a very tough one when you come into a fresh auction and you start retaining players. With Mumbai, we have always tried maintaining a core group of players. Moving forward, I just feel that we can have a good auction and create a group of players who can be match-winners for us. We will put the right foot forward and bring the legacy back where it belongs,” he added.
Mumbai Indians finished at the bottom of the standings in IPL 2024, with only four wins in 14 matches. However, skipper Hardik expressed confidence for the season ahead.
“It’s (Playing for MI) has been fantastic. I’ve received a lot of love back there and it means the world to me. The reason being that my journey started here. Everything that I’ve achieved in my life has been part of Mumbai Indians. We remember, as a group, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020. All our fans know what happened in those years. We are going to come back in 2025 even stronger than that. You lose and win on the ground. It is just preparation. I like to work hard. I like to prepare well,” Hardik was quoted as saying in a video posted on MI’s social media.
“Five people who we all have cherished a lot of good memories together. We are as one. We are five fingers but one fist. That’s how I look at it. We are going to come in all guns blazing, with brotherhood, friendship and at the same point of time we are going to back each other no matter what happens,” he further remarked.
