Hardik Pandya will continue as Mumbai Indians (MI) captain despite enduring a tough IPL 2024, where the team finished bottom of the table for only the second time in 17 seasons. MI made the announcement on Thursday, while revealing they had retained Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma and Tilak Varma, along with Hardik, ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction.
The retention was quite the achievement for MI, considering they managed to hold on to players of considerable stature for a total of INR 75 crore. They will now have INR 45 crore to build the rest of their squad at the mega auction.
Bumrah was retained at INR 18 crore, becoming MI's top retention for the first time in his IPL career. Hardik and Suryakumar were retained at INR 16.35 crore each, while Rohit was retained at INR 16.30 crore. Tilak was retained for INR 8 crore.
Rohit said he was happy at being the team's fourth retention. "Since I have retired from the format, I think this is the perfect spot for me," he said in a video released by the franchise. "The players who are representing the national team at the highest level should get the preference. That's what I believe in and I am quite happy with it."
"It's been fantastic. I think I have received a lot of love back," Hardik said in another MI video. "It means the world to me, reason being, as I've always mentioned, my journey started here. Everything I've achieved in my life has been part of Mumbai Indians. Playing again, every year is a special year, and this year is going to be an even more special year. We remember as a group 2013, 2015, 2017, '19 and '20. I think all of our fans know what happened on those years and we are going to come back in 2025 even stronger than that. You lose and win on the ground.
"Five people who have cherished good memories together. We are five fingers but one fist. That's how I look at it. We are going to come all guns blazing. Brotherhood, friendship, and at the same point of time we are going to back each other no matter what happens."
Hardik had a tough time in IPL 2024; he was routinely booed at various venues - including at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai - after he was traded in from Gujarat Titans and replaced Rohit as captain. He scored only 216 runs at a strike rate of 143 and took 11 wickets with an economy of 10.75.
Akash Ambani, Mumbai Indians owner, said, "We are thrilled that the strong legacy of MI will be carried forward by Jasprit, Surya, Hardik, Rohit and Tilak - players who have become synonymous with our team and the brand of cricket we stand for. In the past month, the MI core group, along with our coaching staff, have come together and worked closely to establish a shared vision for MI. This unified effort reinstates MI's commitment to building strong trust and ownership amongst our core group, our fans and other stakeholders. We will strive to continue playing the passionate brand of cricket everyone expects from us."
After finishing in tenth place last season, MI have also brought back Mahela Jayawardene as head coach for IPL 2025.