Suryakumar Yadav seemed unhappy over Mumbai Indians (MI)’s decision to retire out batter Tilak Varma during their IPL 2025 match against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Friday. Tilak, who was MI’s impact substitute, had managed just 25 off 23 balls with two boundaries when Mitchell Santner with a career IPL strike-rate of 106 was sent in. MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene said it wasn’t nice to retire, but suggested that the decision was a tactical one as Tilak was struggling to time the ball.
Suryakumar, India’s T20I captain, was not happy with the move. In a viral video, Jayawardene was seen conveying the message to Suryakumar, who seemed a bit disappointed with Santner replacing Tilak in the penultimate over.
Indian T20i captain Suryakumar Yadav is not happy with the Tilak retire out decision.This is not how u give confidence to youngsters. MI if u still want to win trophies it’s high time to sack Hardik and make SKY captain pic.twitter.com/JB4vf9CvBn
— Vikas Yadav (@imvikasyadav_1) April 5, 2025
Needing 24 runs off the last seven balls in pursuit of a challenging 204, MI opted to retire Tilak, but the strategy didn’t work as they managed only 191 for five in their 20 overs, losing the game by 12 runs.
“I think Tilak batted well for us when we lost that wicket and that partnership with Surya and he just wanted to get going but he just couldn’t then,” Jayawardene said.
“I waited till the last few overs hoping that because he (Tilak) 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 that I needed someone fresh to go as he was struggling,” he added.
Captain Hardik Pandya (28 off 16 balls) smashed a six off the first ball from Avesh Khan in the final over, but the bowler restricted MI to just three runs off the remaining five deliveries, with Mitchell Santner facing just two balls.
A disappointed Jayawardene reflected that they needed to be more “ruthless” in match situations to cross the line.
“I think halfway point, even at the 14th over mark, we were in it, 12 balls, 14 balls out, we were par score with them…we had the game in control most of the time even after losing those two early wickets but it was just disappointing that we just couldn’t finish it,” he said.
“I think it’s early season so we need to be a bit more ruthless when we’re in those kind of situations to try and finish a game off.”
(With PTI Inputs)
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