Hardik Pandya will continue to lead Mumbai Indians after the 5-time IPL champions announce their player retentions.
Hardik Pandya will continue as Mumbai Indians (MI) captain despite enduring a tough IPL 2024.
Prior to the IPL 2025 big auction, MI announced on Thursday that they had retained Hardik, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma, and Tilak Varma.
Given that they were able to retain players of significant calibre for a total of INR 75 crore, the retention was quite an accomplishment for MI. At the mega auction, they will now have INR 45 crore to assemble the remainder of their team.
For the first time in his IPL career, Bumrah was retained for INR 18 crore, making him MI’s highest retainer. Rohit was at INR 16.30 crore, while Hardik and Suryakumar were at INR 16.35 crore apiece. For INR 8 crore, Tilak was on board.
Rohit said he was happy at being the team’s fourth retention. “Since I have retired from the format, I think this is the perfect spot for me,” he said in a video released by the franchise. “The players who are representing the national team at the highest level should get the preference. That’s what I believe in and I am quite happy with it.”
“It’s been fantastic. I think I have received a lot of love back,” Hardik said in another MI video. “It means the world to me, reason being, as I’ve always mentioned, my journey started here. Everything I’ve achieved in my life has been part of Mumbai Indians. Playing again, every year is a special year, and this year is going to be an even more special year. We remember as a group 2013, 2015, 2017, ’19 and ’20. I think all of our fans know what happened on those years and we are going to come back in 2025 even stronger than that. You lose and win on the ground.
“Five people who have cherished good memories together. We are five fingers but one fist. That’s how I look at it. We are going to come all guns blazing. Brotherhood, friendship, and at the same point of time we are going to back each other no matter what happens.”
Akash Ambani, Mumbai Indians owner, said, “We are thrilled that the strong legacy of MI will be carried forward by Jasprit, Surya, Hardik, Rohit and Tilak – players who have become synonymous with our team and the brand of cricket we stand for. In the past month, the MI core group, along with our coaching staff, have come together and worked closely to establish a shared vision for MI. This unified effort reinstates MI’s commitment to building strong trust and ownership amongst our core group, our fans and other stakeholders. We will strive to continue playing the passionate brand of cricket everyone expects from us.”