Will Hardik Pandya be retained for Rs 18 crores, former Australia cricketer Tom Moody questioned while speaking about Mumbai Indians (MI) retentions ahead of the IPL 2025 auction. The BCCI and IPL governing council recently unveiled the rules for player retention for the franchise.
A franchise will be given a purse of 125 Crores rupees each and they can retain a maximum of 6 players. One compulsory uncapped player has to be retained, with a maximum of two uncapped players.
The first player retained will be paid INR 18 Crores, the second retained player will get INR 14 Crores, while the third retained player will be paid INR 11 Crores. Interestingly, the fourth and fifth retained players will get INR 18 and INR 14 crores respectively.
Mumbai Indians, the five-time champions who finished last season at the bottom of the points table, face a difficult problem in selecting the retention list because they already have many Indian match-winners, and choosing amongst them is not easy.
Tom Moody discusses MI’s player retention strategy
Former SRH head coach Tom Moody gave his thoughts on the Mumbai Indians’ retention policy, suggesting that Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah should be their top targets for the INR 18 crore category, leaving last season’s captain Hardik for an INR 14 pick.
“The way that things panned out in the last edition of the IPL, he would be, I think, a little bit disillusioned with what happened over the last 6-12 months. I would have Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav in the 18-crore bracket, and Hardik at 14. Leaving is up to him or you can put it down to his performance, form and fitness.
And when you dissect all of those areas with Hardik Pandya, does he deserve to be an 18-crore player? Is he worth it? If you’ve got to be an 18-crore player, you’ve got to be a genuine match-winner and do it regularly. Hardik Pandya, through his trials and tribulations over the last edition of the IPL was struggling with both fitness and performance. Tilak Varma absolutely,” Moody said on ESPNCricinfo.
Moody added that in the last few auctions, MI got caught up in showing loyalty towards a player, citing the example of Ishan Kishan, who was signed for a whopping INR 15.25 crore in IPL 2022.
“They’ve had a little bit of problem at the auction table last couple of years. They’ve gotten caught up in a way too loyal in some cases and tried to retain, or get players back into their squad, which has cost them dearly. Classic examples were Ishan Kishan and Jofra Archer, both coming at a heavy price. Did they get the return? I look at Ishan Kishan and I think ‘look he’s a terrific player and is exciting. But also runs very hot and cold. How many matches has he won out of his bat; that’s a question you’ve got to ask. If you’re paying him around 14 crore for retention, are you going to get the return from a performance point of view? They will have to make some hard decisions,” he added.
Use RTM card to retain Rohit Sharma: Tom Moody advises MI
Moody suggested that they talk with former captain Rohit Sharma to learn about his plans to continue with the franchise.
“Hardik, Bumrah, Surya and Tilak are a good 4 to retain. And look at Rohit Sharma as to what his intentions are and then use a Right to Match option. You don’t know what those conversations are going to be,” he concluded.
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