Tilak Varma has become the fourth player to retire out in the IPL. The Mumbai Indians (MI) batter walked off the field with seven balls left in the match against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Friday, after coming on as an Impact Player and scoring 25 off 23 balls in a chase of 204. When Tilak Varma left the field, MI needed 24 off seven balls with five wickets in hand. They couldn’t cross the line, though, with LSG closing out a 12-run win.
Mumbai Indians coach Mahela Jayawardene said that the decision to retire out Tilak Varma was a tactical call as the left-handed batter was struggling to get going during the run chase against Lucknow Super Giants. In the penultimate over of the game, MI decided to make the bold call of taking Tilak Varma out of the game, after he had come in as the impact sub.
Tilak Varma the Impact player gets retired out in the bizarre fashion which sparks a controversy
Mumbai Indians needed 24 off 7 deliveries to beat Lucknow Super Giants in an IPL 2025 match held at the Ekana Cricket Stadium on Friday night. The five-time IPL winners had two set batters in Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya in the middle. However, in a stunning turn of events, MI retired out Tilak Varma – a specialist batter – and sent in Mitchell Santner whose primary role is that of a left-arm spinner.
Tilak Varma scored 25 off 23 balls in the high-pressure chase and he struggled to find any momentum at the Ekana stadium as MI lost the match by 12 runs. The decision to take Tilak out received a lot of criticism as he became the fourth player in IPL history to be retired out and Jayawardene was asked about it in the post-match press conference.
Tilak was batting on 25 off 23 when MI made the strategic call to have him retired out. The move didn’t result in any significant impact as Santner managed 2 off 2 and MI lost the contest finishing at 191/5 while chasing 204. The decision didn’t seem to sit well with MI batting star Suryakumar Yadav who at first looked confused with head coach Mahela Jayawardene explaining the reason behind.
Tilak Verma’s bizarre retired out enrages Suryakumar Yadav as Head Coach Mahela Jayawardene explains the situation of the decision.
It’s a bit unusual to be in the Mumbai Indians dressing room. Two current Team India captains – Rohit Sharma in ODIs and Tests and Suryakumar Yadav (T20Is) – play under Hardik Pandya, who is not even the vice-captain in any format. It says a lot about the Mumbai Indians ownership and management.
They do what they feel is in MI’s best interest. They didn’t shy away from appointing Rohit Sharma as the captain in the middle of the season in 2013, they didn’t shy away from replacing the same Rohit with Hardik Pandya last year. They didn’t shy away from retiring out Tilak Varma after he could not hit boundaries in a 204-run chase against Lucknow Super Giants.
Each of those decisions was looked out of the corner of the eye. There was a lot of backlash for Rohit’s removal and Hardik’s appointment. Retiring out Tilak Varma is unlikely to draw similar reactions, but it definitely attracted its fair share of criticism and bewilderment.
MI needed 29 runs off 12 balls with Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya in the middle. Shardul Thakur had the ball in hand for LSG and the medium pacer hit yorkers and low full tosses with precision, not allowing Hardik and Tilak Varma to get under the ball to hit it in the air. All the pair managed were five singles – two from Tilak Varma and three from Pandya. Then came a defining moment in the game.
Instead of taking strike for the final ball of the 19th over, Tilak Varma started to walk back to the pavilion and in walked Santner. The commentators announced that Tilak, who had scored 25 off 23 balls, hitting only two boundaries, was retiring out.
When Santner was walking out to bat and Tilak Varma was coming back, the Surya, sitting in the dugout could not believe it. He was seen launching a mini protest to the decision. MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene then walked up to Surya to explain the rationale behind the decision. Surya did not react after that but India’s T20I captain did not seem convinced at all.
It is to be mentioned that Suryakumar Yadav is one of Tilak Varma’s biggest admirers. He famously sacrificed his No.3 spot in India’s T20I side after Tilak smashed his maiden international century.
Surya had every reason to be disheartened. After all, MI had an equal chance to chase the target until SKY was batting in the middle. Only when he got out while trying to scoop an Avesh Khan delivery for six in the 17th over did the match turn in LSG’s favour. Surya scored 67 off 43 balls, but it was not enough to take MI over the line, as they lost the match by 12 runs. In his post-match press conference, MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene said it had been his decision to retire Tilak Varma out
Speaking to the reporters, the MI coach said that Tilak Varma tried to get going but failed to get the hits out of his way. Jayawardene said that they waited till the final few overs as they were hoping that Tilak Varma would be able to bounce back after spending a lot of time in the middle.
Once they realised things weren’t going according to plan, Jayawardene said that they needed some fresh in the middle.
“He just wanted to get going but he couldn’t,” Jayawardene said.
“[We] waited till the last few overs, hoping that [he would find his rhythm], because he had spent some time there so he should have been able to get that hit out of the way, but I just felt that at the end, I just needed someone fresh to go, and he was struggling.
The MI coach said that the decision was purely tactical and there is not a lot to read into the call.
“These things happen in cricket. Not nice to take him out but I had to do that, it was a tactical decision at that point.”
MI will be next in action against RCB on Monday, April 7 but till then MI got this controversy and decision to deal with in the IPL which suddenly sparked interest in the competition.
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