File photo of Jasprit Bumrah.© BCCI
Five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) retained five capped players ahead of IPL 2025 Auction. Jasprit Bumrah received the highest retention price at Rs 18 crore while Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav all got similar retention fees. Hardik and Suryakumar were paid Rs 16.35 crore while Rohit, the former MI captain, got Rs 16.30 crore. Tilak Varma is MI’s fifth retention, having been kept on for Rs 8 crore. The franchise chose not to retain any uncapped player and thus they will enter the auction with one Right to Match (RTM) card.
While talking about MI’s retentions, former India cricketer Aakash Chopra praised the franchise for making such a deal. He added that someone of Bumrah or Suryakumar’s calibre could have fetched Rs 25 crore at the mega auction that is set to take place on November 24 and 25 this year in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“What they have managed is an absolutely outstanding thing because Jasprit Bumrah would have taken 25 crores had he gone into the auction. If he had told any franchise that he wants 25 crores, anyone would have given him 25 crores, and I am pretty sure the other franchises would have approached him as well. They would have approached him and Suryakumar Yadav as well because he is not even the captain,” said Chopra in a video on his YouTube channel.
Chopra also pointed out that there is no ego in Suryakumar, who is the T20I captain of the Indian cricket team, as he settled for an amount of Rs 16.35 crore.
“Hardik (Pandya) is the captain and Suryakumar Yadav is the captain of the Indian T20I team. So there is no ego. He is ready to play for this franchise and for 16.35 crores. He too would have got 25 crores if he had said he wanted to go to the auction and some other team’s captaincy as well,” Chopra added.
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