Courtesy: X
Harbhajan Singh, the former Indian cricketer, has shared his thoughts on the player retention from Mumbai Indians ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. The 44-year-old expects MI to retain their core, which includes the captain Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, and Jasprit Bumrah, while raising doubt about Rohit Sharma’s future with the franchise, although he felt that the current Indian captain will be retained too.
During his playing days in the IPL, Harbhajan Singh won three titles for Mumbai Indians under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy before becoming the league champion once again in 2018 under MS Dhoni for Chennai Super Kings. Since the former spinner knows the workings of Mumbai Indians quite well, his prediction about the franchise retaining a set of players could be considered as an indication towards what might happen next.
The question remains whether Rohit Sharma will be retained: Harbhajan Singh
In his interview with Stat Sports, Harbhajan Singh addressed how Mumbai Indians will be approaching player retention ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. He was quoted as saying, as per Times of India, “Mumbai Indians is a team that hasn't played well in the last two to three years. They've been a champion team, a very good team, and as far as I know, they will definitely think of building a team for the future. But that doesn't mean they won't add experienced players this year.”
The multi-time IPL winner went on to predict the players which Mumbai Indians are going to retain for the upcoming season of the IPL, and remarked, “Last year, they made Hardik Pandya captain, and I think he will definitely be retained. Jasprit Bumrah will be retained, Suryakumar Yadav will be retained, and the question remains whether Rohit Sharma will be retained.”
“He (Rohit Sharma) has just won the World Cup as a captain, so I think he should be retained, and he will be. That will make four players, and if there's a fifth player, then Tilak Varma will be retained,” Harbhajan Singh further added.
