Many pricked eyebrows around with respect to Ishan kishan’s absence from the Mumbai Indians’ retention list. The 5-times winners, however, retained Rohit Sharma, the old captain, present leader Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma and Jasprit Bumrah. They were left with one card to exercise in terms of Right to Match, RM, for an uncapped player in the mega auction.
The franchise initiated bidding for the wicketkeeper-batter in the auction hosted at Jeddah but backed out when the price reached Rs. 3.20 crore. Finally, Sunrisers Hyderabad bought Kishan at a price of Rs 11.25 crore.
The MI skipper Pandya explained the reason why the franchise could not retain Ishan, who had been an important part of the team since 2018. In the video shared by MI, the all-rounder further opined on the Indian team as he said the team knew very well to see him coming back in folds after the huge auction because of the player skill set.
“He has always been the freshness and the energy of the room,” said Pandya in a video shared by Mumbai Indians.
“When we could not retain him we always knew it was going to be difficult to get him back from the auction simply because we knew the kind of player and the kind of skill set he brings,” he added.
Pandya referred to Kishan affectionately MI pocket dynamo only between 2018 and 2024 when this period was when MI won the title twice.
“He always used to keep the dressing room lively; he made a lot of people smile, that love and warmth came very naturally to him; and there will be less cake-smashing, less prank happening on the people,” said Pandya.
“But yeah, that was Ishan bringing all the love to this team. We will miss him. Ishan Kishan, you are going to be MI’s pocket dynamo and we all are going to miss you and we love you,” he said.
A few days ago, Kishan had said goodbye to the franchise with a deeply emotional note where he said that the franchise contributed majorly to him becoming a better player and an even better person.
“Oh so many memories with all of you, so many moments of joy, happiness, and growth”, he said in an Instagram post.
“MI, Mumbai, and the Paltan are going to always reside in my heart. I’ve grown as an individual and as a player, with all of you by my side. We part ways with memories that are going to stay with me for life.”
“Thank you to the management, coaches, the players I have played with and all you fans for always being in my corner,” he added.
