IPL 2026: Mahela Jayawardene explains Mumbai Indians' reasoning behind retentions and trades

Mumbai Indians' head coach Mahela Jayawardene has spoken on the franchise's recent trade deals ahead of the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) and the logic behind landing all of them. Sherfane Rutherford, Shardul Thakur and Mayank Markande have been brought in by MI ahead of the mini auction for IPL 2026.

The former Sri Lanka batter spoke on the 'wealth of experience' brought in the form of the Caribbean batter southpaw. He then went onto talk about the local experience of all-rounder Shardul. To conclude, the veteran batter pointed out the leg-spinning Markande's 'warrior' presence. 

“They bring a wealth of experience; you need a group of guys who can handle that pressure. Sherfane brings loads of experience, he has been around for a while and been with us many years ago. Shardul is another player like that, so much of experience. He brings that experience factor and a local Mumbai boy as well as his experience playing in Wankhede will matter. Mayank has been a warrior. When he was with us, he was brilliant as part of a championship-winning team. We have been looking at him for a while. We’ll know exactly the players we want to get as we enter the auction,” Jayawardene said in an official MI statement.

Jayawardane, who played six seasons of IPL while representing three teams, then proceeded on highlighting MI's core and how the management has tried their best on remaining consistent with how they build their team. He concluded by mentioning the think tank's priorities.

“Consistency is key and we built our team around a core group of players and they still remain. They are very hungry for success. Rohit, Surya, Jasprit, Hardik, Tilak, if we put that in that pool. Obviously, bringing back Trent in last season’s auction. We have players with good international experience and an international captain like Mitch Santner as well as Jacksy (Will Jacks. Have always said that I take one game at a time and only focus on the present. Our focus has always been to stay in the present and create that value chain,” he added.

MI 2026 Retentions: Released, Retained & Trade Players List

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MI 2026 Retentions: Released, Retained & Trade Players List

MI have released nine players of which even Arjun Tendulkar is a part. The pace-bowling all-rounder was traded to Lucknow Super Giants for his 2025 price of INR 30 lakh. The five-time champions have five available slots which they can avail with a remaining purse of INR 2.75 crore. The mini auction is likely to be held next month around December 16.