MI skipper Hardik Pandya opens up about losing Ishan Kishan, says it was going to be difficult for them to buy him in IPL 2025 mega auction

Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya has opened up about losing the services of Ishan Kishan and admitted it was always going to be difficult for them to buy the wicket-keeper in IPL 2025 mega auction given his skillsets.

Kishan was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 11.25 crore in the auction. Meanwhile, MI had retained Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma, Tilak Varma and Jasprit Bumrah to keep their core before the auction.

Hardik Pandya said on Mumbai Indians social media post, “Ishan has been the ‘freshness’ and the ‘energy’ of the room. When we couldn’t retain him, we always knew that it’s gonna be very difficult to get him back from the auction simply because we knew that, the kind of player and kind of skillset he brings. He always used to be keep the dressing room light, has made a lot of people smile.”

Pandya added Kishan bought a lot of positive energy to the group and they are going to miss him.

“That love and warmth, it came very natural to him and there will be less cake smashing, less pranks happening on people. That was Ishan and who used to bring so much love to this team, that is something as a group we are going to miss. Ishan Kishan, you always be MI’s pocket-dynamo. We all gonna miss youand we all love you.”

Meanwhile, Kishan joined MI in 2018 and quickly became an integral part of the team. He was part of the winning IPL team in 2019 and 2020 season. 

IPL 2025 will commence on March 14 while the summit clash will be played on May 25.