There was a lot of chatter around Mumbai Indians before the deadline ended for the IPL 2025 retentions but the five-time champions ended up securing their four star Indian cricketers. MI retained Jasprit Bumrah (Rs 18 crore), skipper Hardik Pandya (Rs 16.35 crore), Suryakumar Yadav (Rs 16.35 crore), Rohit Sharma (Rs 16.30 crore) and Tilak Varma (Rs 8 crore).The pricing of the cricketers made it clear that the franchise wanted to maintain a balance with Bumrah emerging as the highest paid. According to a report by Indian Express, the retention process involved several meetings and it was actually Rohit who suggested that the other three cricketers should get paid more than him as they are still playing T20Is.
“He was the one who said that Bumrah, Hardik and Surya play for India so they need to be in the top three,” a source told Indian Express.
The report also claimed that all three batters - Rohit, Suryakumar and Hardik - agreed that it should be Bumrah who will get the most amount of money among the retained players.
“It has a lot to do with the respect Bumrah has in the team and his importance to the side,” said a source.
The other topic that was heavily debated among the MI ranks was captaincy. Under Hardik's leadership, MI finished last in IPL 2024 and the all-rounder came under a lot of criticism.
The report claimed that there were lot of discussions regarding the captaincy scenario and a change was also considered by some in the core management group. However, MI eventually decided against it as they believed that three captains in three years will not be the right move.
“If we had made a change, it would have been three captains in three years. That wouldn't have worked,” said a MI source.