Mumbai Indians (MI) Released Players IPL 2027: Names Who Might Be Dropped

Mumbai Indians just about managed four wins from 14 matches in IPL 2026, finishing ninth on the points table and getting knocked out of playoff contention before most teams had even broken a sweat. It was grim. Not just “disappointing season”, grim, proper, embarrassing, what-on-earth-is-going-on grim. They used 24 players across the campaign, which isn’t squad rotation, it’s panic.

The dressing room looked unsettled from the off. Hardik Pandya’s captaincy continues to raise eyebrows across the cricketing world, and the batting line-up, once the most feared in the format, simply didn’t fire. Rohit Sharma played nine matches because of a hamstring problem that won’t seem to go away. Suryakumar Yadav, the best T20 batter on the planet on his day, averaged barely 21. Their bowlers were being carted around like it was a T10 event.

Ryan Rickelton top-scored for the franchise. Ryan Rickelton. A man who wasn’t even in the original squad conversation two years ago. That tells you everything. MI’s last title was in 2020. Six years of hurt now. Ahead of the December IPL 2027 auction, some genuinely brutal calls are coming, and the management knows it.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of who’s likely to go, who’s staying, and what MI’s auction strategy could look like.

Mumbai Indians (MI) IPL 2026 Campaign Overview

Under Hardik Pandya, Mumbai Indians have now finished tenth, fourth, and ninth across three IPL seasons. That’s a win rate of roughly 38% since he took the armband. The batting was supposed to be untouchable: Rohit, SKY, Pandya, and Tilak Varma, all in one XI. Instead, the whole thing caved in on itself.

Rohit missed five consecutive matches through injury, finishing with 283 runs from nine outings. Suryakumar scraped together 270 runs in 13 games at an average of 20.76, numbers you simply can’t justify at ₹16.35 crore. Pandya himself chipped in with 206 runs and four wickets. Four wickets. At a strike rate of 138, which isn’t even particularly threatening.

The bowling was worse. Deepak Chahar’s economy rate sat at 13.38 for the season. Shardul Thakur’s was 13.57. At those figures, you’re not a bowling attack, you’re a batting practice service. Allah Ghazanfar was the one bright spark, 15 wickets and looking genuinely threatening, but he couldn’t carry the attack on his own.

Stats	IPL 2026 Numbers
Matches Played	14
Wins	4
Losses	10
Points	8
Final Position	9th (Eliminated)

High-Profile Players MI Is Likely to Release

The numbers don’t lie, and at this level, sentiment only stretches so far. MI will need to clear serious money from their books to go shopping properly at the IPL 2027 auction. Several big names, some of them franchise legends, are almost certainly on the way out.

Rohit Sharma: ₹16.30 Crore

Rohit Sharma is Mumbai Indians, in every meaningful sense. Five titles as captain. The man who built that culture, who dragged them through pressure games time and again, who is quite simply the most decorated skipper in IPL history. Letting him go won’t be a cricket decision; it’ll be a rupees decision, wrapped uncomfortably in a cricket conversation.

But the numbers are what they are. He’s 39, hamstrings that keep breaking down, nine matches played out of 14. He scored 283 runs at a healthy enough average of 35, but availability at ₹16.30 crore? That’s not a deal, that’s a gamble. And MI can’t afford another season of their opener missing chunks of the schedule.

[sportzclaus_poll player=”Rohit Sharma” team=”MI” poll_id=”Rohit_mi_2026″]

It’s not about whether Rohit can still bat; he clearly can. It’s about whether a franchise trying to rebuild from the foundations up can justify spending a sixth of their entire purse on a player who may miss another four or five games.

An emotional call. Probably the right one.

Hardik Pandya: ₹16.35 Crore

The numbers since he took over as captain in 2024 read: played 39, won 15. That’s roughly a 38% win rate. For context, that’s worse than some teams that get relegated from domestic leagues.

IPL 2026 was particularly brutal for Pandya. 206 runs, 138 strike rate, four wickets. His bowling changes were often reactive rather than proactive; opposition batters seemed to second-guess him before he’d even made a decision. The team selection kept shifting, the XI never looked settled, and at ₹16.35 crore, MI are essentially paying through the nose for a captain who’s dragging the franchise backwards.

There were glimpses of the old Hardik, a couple of lusty blows here, a key wicket there, but they were fleeting. The consensus is hardening around the idea that MI need a fresh start with someone else at the helm, and that inevitably means Pandya’s enormous contract becomes a weight the franchise simply can’t carry into a rebuild.

Suryakumar Yadav: ₹16.35 Crore

SKY at his best is unplayable. The ramp over third man, the flick off middle stump, the ability to hit the same delivery to four different parts of the ground. When he’s on, he’s genuinely a different class. The problem is that IPL 2026 he very much wasn’t on, 270 runs in 13 games at 20.76 and a strike rate of 147, which for him is practically docile.

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Now, some of that can be chalked up to poor form around him. Openers not setting platforms, the middle order collapsing, SKY walking in under pressure and trying to construct an innings rather than play naturally. There’s context there. But at ₹16.35 crore, you can’t be waiting around for context. You need output.

If MI do release him, don’t expect him to be short of suitors at the auction table.

Deepak Chahar: ₹9.25 Crore

Chahar had a decent first year at Wankhede, 11 wickets in 2025, some genuine new-ball menace alongside Bumrah and Boult, exactly what MI had paid for. IPL 2026 was a different proposition entirely.

Eight wickets in eight matches sounds passable until you see that economy of 13.38 alongside it. For a swing bowler who relies on discipline and movement, conceding at over 13 an over isn’t a blip; it’s a collapse in what makes him useful. The conditions at Wankhede are supposed to suit him more than almost anywhere. They didn’t help enough.

At ₹9.25 crore, Chahar represents a significant chunk of change for a bowler who’s been misfiring badly. The case for releasing him is straightforward.

Shardul Thakur: ₹2 Crore

Credit where it’s due. Shardul has bailed sides out in big moments throughout his career, and he’s the kind of player who’ll always give you everything. Nine matches, 12 wickets, and that 4/39 against someone suggests the heart was there. The economy of 13.57, though, that’s not sustainable.

At ₹2 crore, his price isn’t the issue. It’s more about whether MI want to carry another expensive-in-runs seamer into 2027, particularly if they’re planning to reshape the attack entirely.

Mitchell Santner: ₹2 Crore

Genuinely unfortunate, this one. Santner was picked up to plug that left-arm spin hole and add some lower-order substance, but a shoulder injury in April against CSK effectively ended his involvement. He barely got going.

[sportzclaus_poll player=”Mitchell Santher” team=”MI” poll_id=”santher_mi_2026″]

The issue is that his overseas slot could be used far more productively. When you’ve got Bumrah, Boult, and potentially new additions to fit in, carrying an injured spinner through the season isn’t a luxury MI can afford. He’ll likely be released without anyone holding anything against him personally.

Sherfane Rutherford: ₹2.60 Crore

123 runs, strike rate of 164, a 71* that showed what he can do when he cuts loose. Rutherford isn’t short of ability; the man hits the ball an absolute mile when he connects. But eight matches in and he still couldn’t nail down a settled position in the XI. Sometimes at four, sometimes lower, sometimes not playing at all.

Part of that is the squad chaos MI were operating under all season. Part of it is that Rutherford hasn’t yet convinced anyone he can anchor an innings when the platform isn’t there. Entertaining? Absolutely. Dependable? Not quite yet.

Mahipal Lomror: ₹75 Lakh

Lomror’s domestic record is tidy enough, and left-handed middle-order batters who can turn their arm over are always worth something. But he simply didn’t get the runs on the board at MI when the opportunities came. With the squad in constant flux, he got squeezed out repeatedly, and when he did play, the performances didn’t make a strong enough case for keeping him around.

Raj Angad Bawa: ₹30 Lakh

A player who looked genuinely exciting coming through the age-group ranks, but the step up to senior IPL cricket has proved a steeper climb than anticipated. Bawa is the kind of youngster who needs consistent game time to develop. He’s not getting that at MI right now, and a release might actually serve him better in the long run. Somewhere with a clearer pathway could transform his career.

Danish Malewar: ₹30 Lakh

Malewar barely featured. It’s as simple as that. The domestic circuit is littered with talented players who get swallowed up by the franchise system without ever getting a proper run, and Malewar’s MI stint looks like another cautionary tale. Hard to judge him on the evidence available, but the release seems inevitable.

Mohammad Izhar: ₹30 Lakh

Similar story to Malewar. Izhar was one of several fringe inclusions that MI cycled through in a desperate bid to find something, anything, that clicked. It didn’t. A release is the most likely outcome.

Mumbai Indians (MI) Retained Players List

Not everything is broken. Jasprit Bumrah remains one of the two or three best bowlers in world cricket, regardless of format. Tilak Varma is only getting better, quiet in patches this year, but still one of the most technically gifted young batters in Indian cricket. Rickelton, despite the somewhat surreal position of being MI’s top scorer, earned his place.

• Jasprit Bumrah
• Tilak Varma
• Ryan Rickelton
• Allah Ghazanfar
• Trent Boult
• Naman Dhir
• Will Jacks
• Corbin Bosch
• Quinton de Kock
• Robin Minz

MI Probable Retained & Released Players

Player Name	Role	Price (INR)	Expected Status
Rohit Sharma	Batsman	₹16.30 Crore	Released
Hardik Pandya	All-rounder	₹16.35 Crore	Released
Suryakumar Yadav	Batsman	₹16.35 Crore	Released
Deepak Chahar	Bowler	₹9.25 Crore	Released
Sherfane Rutherford	Batsman	₹2.60 Crore	Released
Shardul Thakur	All-rounder	₹2 Crore	Released
Mitchell Santner	All-rounder	₹2 Crore	Released
Mahipal Lomror	All-rounder	₹75 Lakh	Released
Raj Angad Bawa	All-rounder	₹30 Lakh	Released
Danish Malewar	Batsman	₹30 Lakh	Released
Mohammad Izhar	Bowler	₹30 Lakh	Released
Jasprit Bumrah	Bowler	Retained Core	Retained
Tilak Varma	Batsman	Retained Core	Retained
Ryan Rickelton	Batsman	Retained Core	Retained
Allah Ghazanfar	Bowler	Retained Core	Retained
Trent Boult	Bowler	Retained Core	Retained
Naman Dhir	All-rounder	Retained Core	Retained
Will Jacks	All-rounder	Retained Core	Retained
Corbin Bosch	All-rounder	Retained Core	Retained
Quinton de Kock	Wicketkeeper	Retained Core	Retained
Robin Minz	Wicketkeeper	Retained Core	Retained

Purse Value and Auction Strategy for IPL 2027

Release the players listed above, and MI are looking at somewhere north of ₹65 crore back in the kitty. That’s a war chest. Arguably the biggest any franchise has had to spend in recent memory, which is both exciting and a little terrifying given what they’ve done with money in the recent past.

The priorities write themselves. They need a new captain, someone with a head for the game, not just a name on a shirt.

An Indian top-order batter who can anchor an innings when the platform isn’t there.

A genuine finisher at six or seven, because that slot has been a revolving door for two years running.

And the pace attack needs sorting. Bumrah and Boult can’t do it all, and if Chahar goes, there’s a significant gap at the top of the innings.

The spin department also needs attention. Ghazanfar is promising but raw. One established, experienced spinner who can control the middle overs would change MI’s whole complexion on slow surfaces.

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₹65 crore. Bumrah is still in the squad. Tilak Varma is coming into his prime. The bones are there for something genuinely formidable if MI spends wisely this time.