Reports suggest that captain Rohit Sharma, who led India to win the T20 World Cup but was replaced as Mumbai Indians captain by Hardik Pandya last season, is likely to be one of the four players to be retained by the franchise. In the report that emerged in The Indian Express, Rohit will be retained along with three other star players while MI could use RTM on Tim David and possibly Ishan Kishan.
The other three Indian players who are most likely to be retained by Mumbai Indians are Hardik Pandya, current MI captain, Jasprit Bumrah, without whom MI bowling is incomplete, and Suryakumar Yadav, the current Indian captain.
Hardik faced boos in almost every match at Wankhede Stadium, the home ground of Mumbai Indians, as fans were unhappy with the change in captaincy during the last season. The team had a disastrous campaign and finished the season at the bottom of the IPL 2024 table, winning 4 out of 14 matches. But after his heroics in the World T20, he has regained the trust of the fans.
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The puzzle of Mumbai Indians’ retention
Without a doubt, Mumbai Indians have the best Indian players in their team despite a poor last season where they finished last in the points table. Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya and Nehal Wadhera represent the top six for them, who are among the top six when it comes to Indian players, all of whom are very capable of being retained. For bowling, they will surely want to retain Jasprit Bumrah.
Reports indicate that MI will most likely retain Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah. However, the exact figures of their contracts have not yet been revealed.
The advantage Mumbai have in their team is that they do not have many high-profile foreign players, so most of their retention will depend on retaining Indian cricketers. If they lose any of the above, other teams will take them in a second.
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Mumbai Indians, if required, will be able to retain Nehal Wadhera using the Rs 4 crore uncapped player retention rule. Managing Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma will be a problem but MI can use the Right to Match (RTM) card during the auction to get one of them back if needed.
According to the rules, these six players retained for each team can be limited and non-limited, although no more than five limited players and only one non-limited player are allowed. They are allotted a total of Rs 75 crore and as per their choice, they will have to finalize their list of retained players by October 31 before the mega auction.
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