Mumbai Indians, the five-time IPL champions is one of the most followed teams and arguably the side with the strongest Indian core. These are the players who MI have invested over the years and the result is that they are the most successful team along with the Chennai Super Kings. This holds good even though MI hasn’t won IPL since their triumph back in the 2020 season and their fair share of controversies surrounding the side during the last edition.
Now that the IPL governing council has finally come up with the retention rules ahead of the IPL 2025 Mega Auction, the focus shifts towards each of the 10 franchises and their possible retentions. This piece will delve deep into whom MI will look to retain or use Right To Match (RTM) before the next IPL season.
Hardik Pandya
The preceding season was chaotic for Mumbai Indians and one of the reasons was the change in captaincy. All-rounder Hardik Pandya took over the reins from the franchise’s most successful skipper, Rohit Sharma, and the atmosphere in the dressing room wasn’t the greatest. MI finished in the 10th position with both Rohit & Hardik not having the best of seasons individually.
However, the duo then went on to win the ICC World T20 together, a few months after the IPL concluded and it should have settled differences, if there were any between the duo. Hardik at his best is one of the best all-rounders in the format and MI would ideally look to retain him for the upcoming season and have him take the team forward.
Suryakumar Yadav
The current Indian T20 skipper and arguably one of the world’s best T20 batters, Suryakumar Yadav is a player any of the teams will like to have at their disposal. Surya has been around with this champion team for quite a while now and in all likelihood will continue to do so as one of MI’s first retentions ahead of the auctions.
Rohit Sharma
India’s T20 World Cup-winning skipper Rohit Sharma has been a name synonym with Mumbai Indians for more than a decade now. Under his leadership, MI has five championship titles and will go down as one of the legends of the IPL and for Mumbai Indians. Given his experience at the highest stage, Rohit is all but a certainty to be retained ahead of the auctions by Mumbai Indians.
Jasprit Bumrah
Bumrah is perhaps the best all-format bowler at present and rarely has an off day in any given format. So it is a no-brainer that Mumbai Indians will retain their premier bowler and player of the tournament in the T20 World Cup before the IPL. The price tag for his retention is another topic to debate but in this form, Bumrah’s retention is 100% certainty.
Akash Madhwal / Nehal Wadhera
With the IPL rules stating that a franchise has to retain one of its uncapped players, Mumbai Indians can opt to retain one of pacer Akash Madhwal or the middle-order batter Nehal Wadhera. While Wadhera had a tremendous start to his IPL career in 2023 scoring 241 runs in the 2023 season, he didn’t get many chances in the season gone by due to a star-packed batting line-up of MI.
But with MI likely to release batters Tilak Verma or Ishan Kishan, Nehal might be a good retention ahead of Akash Madhwal, who was equally impressive in the 2 seasons he has featured.
Tilak Verma / Ishan Kishan (RTM)
With the franchises getting an option to as many as six of their players, MI can exercise the use of its only “Right To Match” option on one of their batting mainstays over the years, Ishan Kishan or Tilak Verma. Both of these batters have been match-winners for the franchise and MI will want them back in their squad for IPL 2025. So it is likely that, MI will use RTM and buy them at the auctions.