In an IPL 2025 clash at the Ekana Cricket Stadium on Friday evening, Mumbai Indians required 24 runs from their final seven balls to triumph over the Lucknow Super Giants. With seasoned batsmen Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya holding fort for MI—the five-time champions—a surprising twist occurred when they opted to retire Tilak, who specializes as a batter. Instead, they brought in Mitchell Santner, primarily known for his skills with the ball as a left-arm spinner.
It appeared that the choice wasn't received favorably by MI batting star Suryakumar Yadav Initially, he appeared puzzled as head coach Mahela Jayawardene explained the rationale behind it.
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When Tilak was at 25 runs from 23 balls, MI decided to implement their strategy by retiring him out.
The shift did not yield notable results since Santner scored only 2 runs from 2 deliveries, and MI ended up losing the match with a score of 191/5 while aiming for 204.
The MI skipper, Hardik Pandya, subsequently mentioned that it was an "inevitable" choice because although Tilak put in great effort, he struggled to hit boundaries.
"I believe that was quite clear. We required some crucial hits, but Tilak wasn’t able to deliver them. As they often say in cricket, sometimes despite your best efforts, things just don’t come together," Pandya stated.
Thus, Tilak joined an exclusive list as the fourth batsman in IPL history to be retired out, following Ravichandran Ashwin, Atharva Taide, and Sai Sudharsan.
Jayawardene tackled the contentious issue during his interaction with the press, voicing similar sentiments as Pandya.
He simply wanted to proceed, but he couldn't," stated Jayawardene. "We waited until the final overs, thinking that since he had faced some deliveries, he would be capable of getting those shots done. However, towards the end, all I could think about was needing a fresh player who wasn't tired, as he seemed to be having difficulty.
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