Indian Premier Leagues (IPL) franchises are currently engrossed in finalizing their retention list ahead of the mega IPL 2022 auctions. All the eight existing teams can retain a maximum of four players and the last date to lock the list is November 30. Numerous experts have had a go in guessing the names and the latest to join the discussion is Irfan Pathan, who believes that Mumbai Indians will retain three senior players and Ishan Kishan, leaving out Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav.
Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan, while discussing the MI retention list on Star Sports’ show ‘Game Plan’ reason that five-time champions MI will prefer Ishan Kishan over the two franchise loyals because of their will to invest in a future start.
He further added that the three senior players will be skipper Rohit Sharma, pacer Jasprit Bumrah, and big-hitting all-rounder Kieron Pollard.
“Rohit Sharma number 1, Jasprith Bumrah number 2, number 3 Kieron Pollard and number 4, I’m very clear on that, Ishan Kishan. He’s 23-years-old and has shown glimpses of what he can do and achieve. He’s a solid hitter when it comes to having a left-hand batsman at the top of the order and you can definitely invest in him because he will have at least 10 years of good level of cricket, so Ishan Kishan.”
Kishan became a part of the Mumbai Indians franchise in 2018 and came of age during IPL 2020. He scored 516 runs in 14 matches. In the most-recent edition, he amassed 241 runs in 10 games. He looked in great touch towards the end and it was because of his IPL exploits that earned him his T20I call-up.
On the other hand, both Suryakumar Yadav (317 runs in 14 matches) and Hardik Pandya (127 runs in 12 matches) failed to make an impact. Moreover, their lukewarm form continued in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in the UAE. Pandya was eventually dropped for the T20I series against New Zealand at home.
