Mumbai: Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Rohit Sharma, who was retained by the franchise for next year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday, said it was ‘absolutely heart-breaking’ not to be able to hold on to their entire core group of players.
Ahead of the mega auction, the five time IPL champions retained four cricketers the maximum number of players allowed to each franchise. MI dished out a whopping Rs 16 crores to India’s new T20I skipper Rohit. The other three were Jasprit Bumrah (Rs 12 crores), Suryakumar Yadav (Rs 8 crores) and Kieron Pollard (Rs 6 crores) has been retained as the only overseas player by MI respectively.
“As you all know, it was going to be the toughest retention for Mumbai Indians this year. We have had solid players, absolutely gun players in our squad and to release them is absolutely heart-breaking,” Rohit told Star sports after the IPL retention.
“They have done some amazing work for this franchise, created a lot of memories. So, to let them go was really tough. Four players including myself – hopefully we can form a good core and create a solid team around us,” Rohit said.
On the other hand the notable absentees for MI are Hardik and Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Trent Boult and Quinton de Kock. Having said that, MI, with a remaining purse of ₹48 crore, MI would hope to buy the released players back during the mega auction ahead of the 15th edition of the cash-rich League. Regarding the same, Rohit said he has full faith in the team assembling a solid set of players for the next editions of the Indian Premier League.
“The immediate goal is to form a solid team and that will start at the auction. We’ll keep an eye on who we can get in the auction, find the right spot for the right players. So yeah, our scouts are doing a fantastic job, watching talents in and outside India. I have faith and belief in them. They have done an amazing job over the years fishing talent. Hopefully we can find some players that can form a good core,” added Rohit.
