The former Indian player suggested that Abhishek Nayar, who shares a very close bond with India’s veteran opener Rohit Sharma, may have asked him to leave Mumbai Indians and join the KKR team for next season.
Mumbai Indians have a compact list of cricketers selected in the IPL 2025 mega auction. MI lost to Punjab Kings in the qualifying round and finished the season in second place.
The IPL market is slowly heating up as the retention deadline approaches and Mumbai Indians appear to be active in the trade window. They have already officially announced two trades and another is being talked about.
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Abhishek Nayar may have encouraged Rohit Sharma to join KKR
Former cricketer Mohammad Kaif recently commented on the possibility of ex-Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma being traded to Kolkata Knight Riders ahead of the 2026 IPL auction.
He suggested that Abhishek Nayar, the newly appointed head coach of Kolkata Knight Riders, has a very close relationship with Rohit Sharma and must have asked the player if he is interested in playing for KKR.
“Nayar would have asked Rohit if he wants to join KKR.) According to me, Abhishek Nayar would definitely have asked Rohit if he wants to join KKR. He 100% must have asked. But Rohit being Rohit, he had a chance to go last time as well but didn’t. His family and kids are in Mumbai,” Mohammad Kaif said during a live session.
“So, it suits him better. He’s about 39 years old, so maybe it’s in his mind that he will have to spend three or four months at KKR. The pitch, the people, everything will be different there,” he added.
Here everyone is like family to him – Mohammed Kaif
Rohit Sharma joined the Mumbai-based team in 2011 and under his leadership became the first IPL captain to win five IPL titles. With the arrival of Hardik Pandya in 2024, his tenure as captain ended at 13 years.
Mohammad Kaif also pointed out that Rohit Sharma has very close ties with the Ambani family and hence the star player would have thought of playing for another franchise only if MI had another owner.
“Here, everyone is like family to him and he also has connections with Reliance. If Akash Ambani and Reliance were not involved, maybe he would have thought of leaving the team,” Kaif said in the same video.
The real motive behind MI’s Rs 4.6 billion trade deal
This trade window saw Shardul Thakur move from Lucknow Super Giants and Sherfan Rutherford from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians for fees of Rs 200 crore and Rs 260 crore respectively.
MI earned Rs 200 crore from the trade exchange of Arjun Tendulkar and LSG but still has a deficit of Rs 460 crore. The same amount will be deducted from your wallet during the mini-auction. It will also be interesting to see which players the Mumbai Indians release.
Two former Mumbai Indians players, Mayank Markande and Rahul Chahar, are also on MI’s radar as they are in talks with Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad. However, this will cost a huge amount of over 3.2 billion rupees.
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