Why Mumbai Indians can’t use RTM on Ishan Kishan

The Mumbai Indians (MI) retained five capped Indian players as they braced themselves for the auction ahead of the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The five-time champions opted to retain Jasprit Bumrah (INR 18 crore), Suryakumar Yadav (INR 16.35 crore), Hardik Pandya (INR 16.35 crore), Rohit Sharma (INR 16.30 crore), and Tilak Varma (INR 8 crore). 

That only leaves out Ishan Kishan amongst the top Indian international players in the side who missed out on being on the retention list. 

MI still have one RTM card at their disposal but, as it turns out, even if the franchise want to bring back Kishan through RTM, they can't. Because it would be against the retention rules decided by the IPL governing council. 

Teams can retain up to six players through a combination of retentions and right to match (RTM) cards but out of the six, only a maximum of five can be capped international players (Indians or overseas), and two can be uncapped. 

Now, since MI have already retained five capped players in Bumrah, Rohit, Suryakumar, Hardik, and Tilak, they don’t have the RTM card available to retain Kishan. They can, however, use it to bring back an uncapped player like Anshul Kamboj or Nehal Wadhera.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are the other team who are in the same boat as MI, as they also retained five capped players in Heinrich Klaasen (INR 23 crore), Pat Cummins (INR 18 crore), Abhishek Sharma (INR 14 crore), Travis Head (INR 14 crore), and Nitish Kumar Reddy (INR 6 crore). They have only one RTM option available like MI, and they’ll have to use that on an uncapped player only. 

Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Lucknow SuperGiants (LSG), and Gujarat Titans (GT) are the other two teams with only one RTM card available. However, since they have retained only four capped players and not five, they can use RTM to buy back either a capped or an uncapped player, depending on their purse and need. 

Punjab Kings have as many as four RTM cards available, as they have retained the fewest players (only Shashank and Prabhsimran Singh), both uncapped Indians. Meanwhile, Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals have no RTM options available. The remaining sides, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Delhi Capitals, have three and two RTM options left, respectively. 

While the date for the auction hasn’t been made official yet, it’s understood that the auction will be held in the last week of November.