The Mumbai Indians (MI) have locked in one of the most formidable core lineups for the IPL 2025 season after announcing their retention list on October 31, 2024. The five-time IPL champions have kept their star players—Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, and Tilak Varma—ensuring a solid foundation ahead of the much-anticipated IPL 2025 Mega Auction.

Rohit Sharma, MI's five-time IPL champion skipper, has expressed his satisfaction after being retained by the franchise for INR 16.30 crore, making him the fourth-highest-paid player in the squad. Despite speculation surrounding his future with MI, the team decided to keep Rohit, who had stepped down as captain last season but remains a key figure for the franchise.

"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" former MI captain added.

"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 other's help. And hopefully, we can turn things around,Mumbai Indians has a rich history of winning trophies, winning games out of unbelievable situations. Since I have retired from the (international) format, I think this is the perfect spot for me." He added.

"Everything that I've achieved in my life has been part of Mumbai Indians. We remember, as a group, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020. All our fans know what happened in those years. We are going to come back in 2025 even stronger than that," he concluded.