Last Update on: December 2nd, 2021 at 12:09 pm
Mumbai Indians Director of Cricket Operations Zaheer Khan is hopeful of getting back some of the released players in the mega-auction.
The 5-time champions on Tuesday announced their retentions ahead of IPL 2022 mega-auction: Rohit Sharma (16 cr), Jasprit Bumrah (12 cr), Suryakumar Yadav (8 cr), Kieron Pollard (6 cr) have been retained, while Hardik and Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Trent Boult, Quinton de Kock, Rahul Chahar – all of whom have been instrumental in their success of recent years – were released.
The two new franchises – Lucknow and Ahmedabad – have the option to pick from the released players.
Zaheer Khan stated that it was a tough decision to let these players go, but stressed that the franchise will look to buy them back if they are available in the mega-auction.
“It has been an emotional time for us. You look at the positives of it. A lot of players started their journey here, groomed themselves in the best possible scenario. A lot of them have represented their country, so that’s what you feel proud about,” Zaheer Khan told Cricbuzz.
“It’s not the end of the road. There’s still a chance we will get a lot of them back, so that’s the way we look at it.
“It has been a heartbreaking scenario for sure but all teams have to go through this journey. We’re no exception to that. As a professional player you understand the dynamics of franchise cricket. (And as a franchise) You tend to do the best in such a scenario.”
We will try and repeat a similar kind of success in the coming years: Zaheer Khan
The former India pacer asserted that MI will build and strategise around the retained players. He aims for achieving success in the upcoming cycle as they had in the previous cycle, which made Mumbai one of the most dominating T20 sides of all time.
“The way forward is simple. The things which have been working, you stick with that. And you look ahead. There’s plenty of time for the mega auction. Preparations will start keeping this in mind. The kind of success we had in our last cycle, we will try and repeat a similar kind of success in the coming years,” Zaheer Khan added.
Lucknow and Ahmedabad have been given the deadline of December 25 to finalize their three picks (2 Indian, 1 overseas).