Tilak Varma’s surprise retirement against LSG wasn’t Hardik Pandya’s call; MI staffer makes big revelation

Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya did not make the controversial decision to retire Tilak Varma in the second-last over of the run chase against Lucknow Super Giants on Friday. The revelation came during a post-match press conference by MI coach and former Sri Lanka great Mahela Jayawardhane, who remarked that it was “not nice” to remove Varma but it had to be done.

Notably, Varma became only the fourth player in IPL history to be ‘Retired Out’ after being called back by Mumbai Indians off the second last ball of the 19th over. Varma was replaced at the crease by Mitchell Santner, who faced just 2 balls and failed to make much of an impact on the innings.

Varma was batting on 25 off 23 balls when he was called back to the pavilion during the 204-run run chase in Lucknow. In the end, MI lost the match by 12 runs with skipper Hardik Pandya and Santner remaining unbeaten at the crease.

MI coach on retiring out Tilak Varma:

Speaking after MI’s loss in Lucknow, Jayawardhane said, “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,”

The former Sri Lankan captain added that he felt someone fresh needed to go on the pitch for the last 7 balls of the innings. He said, “I waited till the last few overs hoping that because he 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,”

“When these things happen in cricket and not nice to take him out but I had to do that, it was a tactical decision at that point,” the MI coach added.

What did Hardik Pandya said about retiring out Tilak Varma?

Speaking during the post match presentation Pandya backed the call to retire Varma, saying, “It was obvious (on Tilak being retired out). We needed some hits. In cricket, some of those days come. When you try but it doesn’t come off,”

“I think as a batting unit, we fell short. We win as a team. We lose as a team. Don’t want to point someone out. The ownership has to be taken by the whole batting unit. I take full ownership,” Pandya added