Ishan Kishan is set to return to Mumbai Indians (MI) for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season after his services were acquired by the franchise for a whopping fee of Rs 15.25 crore. In the process, Kishan also became the most expensive buy of the IPL 2022 auction so far. Kishan, who made his IPL debut in 2016 with the now-defunct Gujarat Lions, had earlier been bought by the Mumbai Indians ahead of IPL 2018 season. He was, however, not among the four players retained by MI during the player retentions ahead of the IPL mega auction. The wicketkeeper-batter reacted to his big pay day by sharing his excitement at being able to return to MI.
"I am coming home to aamchi Mumbai. Paltan, I have missed you and I can't wait to reunite. We have made so many memories together but our story is just getting started. Thank you to the owners and management for having faith in me and see you all soon," he said in a video posted on Twitter by MI.
Kishan played an important part in Mumbai's back-to-back title-winning campaigns in 2019 and 2020. He was the top-scorer of the team in the 2020 season, amassing 516 runs from 14 matches.
On Saturday, Kishan became the second-most expensive Indian player, and fourth-most expensive overall, in IPL history.
For MI, Ishan scored 1,133 runs in 45 matches across four seasons.
Ahead of the auction, MI had retained four players.
They had held on to captain Rohit Sharma (Rs 16 crore), ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah (Rs 12 crore), batter Suryakumar Yadav (Rs 8 crore), and veteran all-rounder Kieron Pollard (Rs 6 crore).
MI entered the auction with an overall purse of Rs 48 crore.