After a long bidding war, the star Indian wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan went to SRH for Rs 11.25 crore. With a record of over 100 IPL games and 2,644 runs, he was undoubtedly an important player for MI. However, the question is, why didn’t MI use their RTM card for Ishan Kishan, who has been a key player for them over the years?
Ishan has been part of the MI setup since 2018 and was the most expensive buy in the 2022 mega auction. But, ahead of the IPL 2025 auction, the team decided not to retain him. Expectations were high that MI would use their RTM card to bring him back, but what was the reason they chose not to?
Why MI can’t use RTM for Ishan Kishan?
The reason this wicketkeeper-batter from Jharkhand didn’t return to the MI camp through the RTM card is due to the IPL governing council’s rule. It was clarified that teams can retain up to six players through a combination of retentions and RTM cards. However, out of the six, only a maximum of five can be capped international players, whether Indian or overseas, and at least one must be uncapped.
Looking at MI’s retentions for IPL 2025, they opted to retain Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, and Tilak Varma, all of whom are capped players. This means their capped player quota is already full, as Ishan himself is a capped player. Therefore, the remaining RTM card can only be used for an uncapped player, which is why MI did not use the RTM card for him.
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