The 40-year-old, reacting to the Rohit Sharma leaving Mumbai rumours, said that it would grab all the limelight and headlines. 

Hardik Pandya was handed over the captaincy after Rohit was sacked from the position last season at the franchise. 

During a live Question and Answer session on de Villiers’ YouTube channel, he spoke about the potential Rohit Sharma transfer. 

The former Royal Challengers Bengaluru legend said that he does not see the move going through given the Rohit's commitment to the franchise.

"I almost laughed at the Rohit comment. That will be quite a story if Rohit moves from Mumbai Indians to RCB. Wow! Imagine the headlines. It will be bigger than Hardik Pandya's move. He moved from Gujarat Titans back to Mumbai, which although wasn't big a surprise," De Villiers said on Youtube.

Coming to the mega auction, each franchise will be allowed to retain a maximum of six players, in which at least one player should be under the uncapped bracket. 

However, the choice of utilisation is left to the teams - three retentions and three RTMs, four retentions and two RTMs and so forth.

According to several reports, the price brackets for retentions are 18 crore, 14 crore, 11 crore, 18 crore, 14 crore, 4 crore (uncapped).