The former Indian opener and cricket analyst Aakash Chopra thinks that Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah should be on top of the priority list for Mumbai Indians as far as retention is concerned.
Mumbai Indians have got so many match-winners that nobody can say with absolute conviction which two players they will decide to retain ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction. Because of the two new teams being added to the IPL, it’s unlikely that the IPL governing council will allow more than a couple of retentions.
Now, for two retentions, Mumbai Indians have at least 6 options. Apart from Rohit and Bumrah, the other options are Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard.
Analysing the possible retentions for Mumbai Indians on his YouTube channel, Chopra said, “The two obvious names Mumbai Indians should retain are Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah. You can also think of Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, and Kieron Pollard. However, Sharma and Bumrah should be the two biggest retentions, as franchises can only keep a couple of players ahead of the mega auction.”
Rohit Sharma has been an incredible leader for Mumbai Indians for a long time
Performance-wise, Suryakumar, Ishan and Pollard should be the top priorities as well, but retaining Rohit is important because he has been an incredible leader for Mumbai Indians for a long time, guiding them to 5 IPL titles. No captain in the history of the tournament has been able to win as many titles.
In IPL 2021, Mumbai Indians might not have been able to do as well as it was expected, but during this 4-year cycle after the previous mega auction, they won two titles and were comfortably the most dangerous team in the tournament.
It will be important for the Mumbai Indians to smartly assemble another quality squad in the next mega auction where it will be a challenge to buy every player they will have on their radar because of two extra franchises and hence, more bids.
