Mumbai, November 30: The Mumbai Indians on Tuesday (November 30) decided to retain their skipper Rohit Sharma along three others — Kieron Pollard, Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah — as the window for IPL Player Retention came to a close.
Here we are taking a close look at the four players MI retained. They now have Rs 48 crore remaining in their purse for the mega auction.
Rohit Sharma (Rs 16 crore): It is indeed a no-brainer. Rohit is their most successful captain, in fact in the entire IPL, landing them a record five IPL titles. He is also one of the finest white ball batsman ever to have played the game, and was recently elevated as the full-time T20I skipper of India. So, there was no way Mumbai will not retain Rohit.
Jasprit Bumrah (Rs 12 crore): Another easy decision. Bumrah is among the best bowlers in contemporary cricket across the format, and more so in white ball format. His precision-guided Yorkers and bouncers and other variations can land batsmen in trouble. No way, MI could have let Bumrah go to some other team.
Kieron Pollard (Rs 6 crore): One more straightforward call for MI management. Pollard has made literally big contributions to Mumbai’s title wins in the previous editions. And he has a really cool head too as displayed either when standing as skipper in the absence of Rohit Sharma or bailing out Mumbai from tight corners. He still has lot to offer as a player and as a part of the leadership group for Mumbai Indians.
Suryakumar Yadav (Rs 8 crore): There was a tight race between Surya and Ishan Kishan for that fourth retainership plot. But Surya has experience and seemed to have returned to his best after a dull time with the bat up until the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. After all, Sky is the limit for Mumbai in the IPL and this SKY too fits that ambitious march.
The players released by Mumbai Indians
Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Chris Lynn, Saurabh Tiwary, Anmolpreet Singh, Aditya Tare, Quinton de Kock, Piyush Chawla, Anukul Roy, Jimmy Neesham, Marco Jansen, Adam Milne, Trent Boult, Dhawal Kulkarni, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Mohsin Khan, Yudhvir Singh, Arjun Tendulkar, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav.