Rohit Sharma Breaks Silence On Not Being In The Top 3 Retentions For MI. Says, "Players Who..."

Indian captain Rohit Sharma on Thursday backed the retention of national team players in the Mumbai Indians squad for IPL 2025 while franchise skipper Hardik Pandya summed it up as "five fingers but one fist". Mumbai Indians chose to retain five Indian players as the IPL franchises submitted their list of retentions to end weeks of speculations around who were going to stay with their teams and who would be entering the auction pool. MI's retentions were 1. Jasprit Bumrah, 2. Hardik Pandya, 3. Suryakumar Yadav, 4. Rohit Sharma, 5. Tilak Varma.

"Since I have retired from the format, this is the perfect (retention) 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. It's a very tough one when you come into a fresh auction and you start retaining players," former MI skipper Rohit said after being retained by the five-time winners.

After a disastrous last season when they finished at the bottom of the 10-team league, Rohit said MI will look to put their best foot forward in the next edition.

"With Mumbai, we have always tried maintaining a core group of players. Moving forward, I just feel that we can have a good auction and create a group of players who can be match-winners for us.

"We will put the right foot forward and bring the legacy back where it belongs." There have also been plenty of chatter around Rohit's future in the side after he was replaced by Hardik as captain before the start of last year's tournament.

"I have played so much cricket for Mumbai Indians. I am happy to be here. We haven't had the best of the season in the last two or three years. But we are quite determined to change that. We will be looking forward to each