"When We Couldn't Retain Him...": Hardik Pandya Breaks Silence On Ishan Kishan's Exit
After Mumbai Indians refused to retain Ishan Kishan, the wicket-keeper batter was sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for a price of INR 11.25 crore.
A member of the Mumbai Indians team since 2018, Ishan Kishan was sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 auction. The wicket-keeper batter was released by the Mumbai Indians ahead of the 2-day auction, with the franchise deciding to keep Tilak Varma instead. Mumbai did bid for him in the auction, but didn't go beyond INR 3.20 crore mark. Now, MI skipper Hardik Pandya has opened up on his departure.
Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad engaged in an intense bidding war for the player, before the latter roped him in for a fee of INR 11.25 crore. With Ishan's exit, MI lost a big part of its core, a player who had been with the side for 7 years.
Hardik, in a video shared by the franchise on social media, admitted that the bosses knew getting Ishan back would be tough from the auction.
"Ishan has been the 'freshness' and the 'energy' of the room. When we couldn't retain him, we always knew that it's gonna be very difficult to get him back from the auction simply because we knew that, the kind of player and kind of skillset he brings. He always used to be keep the dressing room light, has made a lot of people smile," Hardik said in the video.
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MumbaiMeriJaan?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MumbaiMeriJaan #MumbaiIndians | @ishankishan51 pic.twitter.com/K1Gz5DKYUU
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) December 1, 2024
"That love and warmth, it came very natural to him and there will be less cake smashing, less pranks happening on people. That was Ishan and who used to bring so much love to this team, that is something as a group we are going to miss. Ishan Kishan, you always be MI's pocket-dynamo. We all gonna miss you and we all love you," he added.
Ishan was bought by MI for a whopping fee of INR 15.25 crore in the IPL 2022 season and was retained in the 2023 and the 2024 campaigns. However, a string of poor performances saw him being released ahead of the 2025 auction.
With SRH, however, Ishan has found another franchise that is being touted among the finest in the league, at least on paper.
Mumbai Indians
Hardik Pandya