IPL Retention: Mumbai Indians retain three players for 2018 season

After a lot of debate and discussion, the Mumbai Indians finalised on the players they wish to retain for the 2018 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). As the cut off date for the IPL player retention was coming close, the build up the news was buzzing in the media. Among the lot, the eyes were on the Mumbai franchise.

The key reasons why the Mumbai Indians made the headlines before the actual retentions were announced could be enlisted as follows. Firstly, they have always believed in retaining their core group of players. Even during the previous IPL auctions, they have often tried to regain their players who had played for them in the previous editions.

The mantra seemed to have worked pretty well as well. They are the only team to have won 3 IPL titles in the history of the tournament. The second reason why MI had the news buzz around them was the plethora of match winners they had in their side. There were speculations that the team could actually retain Krunal Pandya since he is an uncapped player.

Retaining an uncapped player would have meant shelling out half the money that the teams are expected to pay out for retaining a capped player. However, the owners and the management went ahead with the decision of retaining three capped players.

Indian internationals form the Mumbai Indians

The retention of skipper Rohit Sharma was almost a certain one. Rohit has led the MI team to three title wins. Rohit was retained for INR 15 crore and that amount will be his league fee. The second retention was hard-hitting all-rounder Hardik Pandya. Pandya had escalated to the national side after performing in the IPL for the MI team.

He will get a league fee of INR 11 crore, the same amount the franchise gave away to retain him. The last retention is that of Jasprit Bumrah. Earlier, skipper Rohit had hinted at retaining Bumrah at the auctions with a social media update. Bumrah was retained for INR 7 crore. They have INR 47 crore left in their purse for the auctions. Also, they can use 2 Right to Match cards at the auctions now out of the three permissible ones.

Catch all the latest & updated news on IPL 2018 on https://www.crictracker.com/.