Mumbai Indians (MI) have confirmed their captain for IPL 2025. Hardik Pandya will continue to lead the Mumbai-based franchise in the next season. With Suryakumar Yadav taking over as India's T20I captain following Rohit Sharma's retirement from the shortest format, many expected him to become MI's captain too. But the franchise has shown faith in Hardik.

The star all-rounder made his return to MI before IPL 2024 via trade. He replaced Rohit as the captain and led the Mumbai-based franchise in the previous season. The five-time IPL Champions had their worst-ever season under Hardik and they finished at the last spot in the points table.

Hardik was retained as India's vice-captain in the 2024 T20 World Cup and he assisted Rohit. He looked set to become India's T20I captain but missed out.

MI were expected to give a long rope to Hardik despite a forgettable IPL 2024 season and now the likes of Suryakumar, Rohit and Jasprit Bumrah will once again play under him. Hardik made his captaincy debut in IPL 2022 and captained Gujarat Titans (GT) to a title win in their debut season. GT made it to the final of IPL 2023 too.

Mumbai Indians have retained Hardik Pandya (16.35 crore), Suryakumar Yadav (16.35 crore), Rohit Sharma (16.30 crore), Jasprit Bumrah (18 crore) and Tilak Varma (8 crore). Bumrah will earn more than his captain.

Since MI have retained five capped players before the mega-auction, they can't use their Right to Match (RTN) card on another capped player. They can use their RTM card on an uncapped player. Every franchise was allowed to retain an uncapped player for Rs 4 crore.

Meanwhile, Heinrich Klaasen created history on the retention day as he stayed with Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 23 crore. This is the highest retention amount in the history of IPL.

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