Mumbai Indians (MI) were among the few teams to make the five limited-overs ahead of the IPL 2025 auction. They would be pleased with their picks as they managed to retain all the big guns and retain Hardik Pandya as their captain.

The main question is how MI convinced Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah to stay in the team. At least two of them were supposed to part ways with the franchise before next season.

According to ESPNcricinfo, MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene and owner Akash Ambani met the players twice in October to review a lackluster IPL 2024. The likely retainers were also asked to clarify their demands before finalizing withholdings.

The initial decision was to pay the same amount to the four big players, but the players decided the holding order themselves. Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav, who replaced Rohit Sharma as India captain after his retirement, expressed his ambitions to lead the Mumbai Indians at some point.

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However, the team management made it clear to Suryakumar that they could not promise anything as they wanted to keep Hardik as captain in IPL 2025. Finally, he decided to stay with MI and play as a player.

The management told the players that replacing Hardik as captain after a poor season would be unfair. The discussion was to create the right environment within the dressing room as it would help MI and make Hardik’s job easier, to which the players agreed.

Furthermore, all three (Rohit, Hardik and Suryakumar) agreed that Jasprit Bumrah deserves the highest retention and the highest amount. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma has also agreed to settle as the fourth retainer since he retired from the format in international cricket.

“Since I am retired from this format, I think this is the best place for me. Players representing the national team at the highest level should be given preference. That’s what I believe in and I’m very happy with it. It is very difficult when you come to a new auction and start retaining players,” Rohit exclaimed.

Finally, the players agreed that clarity must be provided to fans to prevent the team from losing its support base. It looks like the five-time IPL champions are finally maintaining stability after a chaotic last season and will hope to return to their dangerous best next season.

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