How did MI manage to retain their four big guns and Tilak within 75 crore?

Mumbai Indians have managed to do the impossible before the Indian Premier League 2025 mega auction, retaining their four big guns Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma within INR 75 crore. Mumbai have also kept Tilak Varma within the aforementioned amount, which is the minimum amount you need to spend to retain five players.

According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, the MI senior management wanted to retain Bumrah, Hardik, Suryakumar and Rohit for equal amounts, but the players ended up deciding the retention order themselves. Hardik, SKY and Rohit felt Bumrah deserved to be the top retention, while the latter was happy to be fourth on the list.

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The five-time champions have retained Bumrah for INR 18 crore, while Hardik and SKY have been retained for INR 16.35 crore. Rohit is getting INR 16.3 crore, while Tilak has been kept for INR 8 crore. “Since I have retired from the format, I think this is the perfect spot for me. 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,” said Rohit.

The portal also reported that the senior players and the management, including owner Akash Ambani, met twice in October to review the last season, where Mumbai could only win four of their 14 games and finished last on the points table. The aforementioned players were also asked about their expectations before the retentions were finalised.

SKY, who is now India’s T20I captain following Rohit's retirement, expressed his keenness to lead MI, but the management said it wouldn't be fair to judge Hardik based on one season in which he struggled with his form but has managed to turn things around since the T20 World Cup. The management said they won’t be able to promise SKY anything related to captaincy but the batter didn’t have too much problem with it and was happy to be the second retention alongside Hardik.

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The fans were also not impressed with the management after they removed Rohit from the captaincy and gave it to Hardik last season. The ace all-rounder was booed everywhere he went and when the topic of the team losing its fans came up, SKY said: "Main mahaul banaunga (I will create the atmosphere).” 

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