The former left-arm spinner of Australia, Brad Hogg, has predicted that Mumbai Indians (MI) might look to surprise the fans by making a surprise turn for their first-choice player as the retention ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction. The five-time champions have been under some headaches in deciding their top-five retained players.
The IPL Governing Council (GC) has declared that every team can aim for six players, either by retention or the right-to-match (RTM) card, before the mega auction. In that case, the first and four retained players will eat up INR 18 crore, while the second and fifth will go for INR 14 crore, and the third will cost them INR 11 crore.
Mumbai Indians, who finished with the wooden spoon in the 2023 season of the league, will be eager to retain their captain, Hardik Pandya, besides extending the relationship with their former leader, Rohit Sharma. They can’t go past the premier pacer, Jasprit Bumrah, and the current T20I captain, Suryakumar Yadav.
But the question stands, who would be confident enough to give away a huge chunk of the purse going into a mega auction, given the planning would be for the next three seasons?
Brad Hogg backs Mumbai Indians to retain Suryakumar Yadav as first-choice player
The former left-arm leg-spinner of the Australian side, Brad Hogg, has displayed his desire to the franchise to go for Sky as their first retained player ahead of Hardik and Rohit, given his ability to nail the sixes in all parts of the ground with such comfort.
He is the third-highest run-getter of the Mumbai Indians with 3033 runs in just 96 innings at an average of over 35 and a strike rate of nearly 150, shouldering on 23 half-centuries and a couple of centuries at a best score of unbeaten 103 runs.
Rohit, however, has led the chart with 5731 runs in 221 games at an average of little under 30 and a strike rate of more than 130, with the help of 36 half-centuries and two centuries at a best score of unbeaten 109 runs.
“He’s able to hit sixes in all parts of the ground, and he just sets himself up so beautifully. That’s why I think Mumbai Indians will have to look at keeping him as their number one player rather than Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya because he just blows opposition teams away.” Hogg expressed in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel.
But then, it would be hard to get Hardik Pandya at a price less than INR 18 crore, which is expected to be packed for Bumrah, the second-highest wicket-taker for the franchise with 168 scalps in 136 innings at an average of under 23 and a strike rate of 7.31.
Suryakumar Yadav has also shown his incredible skills with the captaincy hat for India, with an impressive series win over Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Hogg reckoned the batter has developed his skills for Mumbai Indians.
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“He has shown that he is a true leader. When I played with him at Kolkata Knight Riders, I just thought he was more of a follower there. I didn’t see the leadership side of it there, but when I went and did a bit of coaching at Mumbai Indians, there was a slight change.” The Western Australian revealed.
“You could see that he felt part of the team, and he was starting to think he was a leader. He was one of the experienced players in the team, he was taking youngsters under the wing.” The veteran concluded.
The deadline for the retentions before the IPL 2025 mega auction is October 31.