Mahela Jayawardene, coach of the Mumbai Indians, stated that Tilak Varma’s retirement was a tactical choice because the left-handed batsman was having trouble getting going during the run chase against the Lucknow Super Giants. After Tilak entered as the impact substitute, MI made the audacious decision to remove him from the game in the penultimate over.
In the intense chase, Tilak scored 25 runs off of 23 balls, but he was unable to muster any momentum at Ekana Stadium, and MI lost by 12 runs. As Tilak became the fourth player in IPL history to be retired out, the decision to remove him drew a lot of criticism, and Jayawardene was questioned about it during the press conference held after the game.
The MI coach told reporters that although Tilak attempted to get going, he was unable to get the hits out of his way. According to Jayawardene, they waited until the last few overs in the hopes that Tilak would recover from spending so much time in the middle.
Jayawardene stated that they needed some fresh in the middle after realizing that things weren’t working as planned. “Tilak batted well for us when we lost that wicket and in partnership with Suryakumar. He was trying to get going, but he just couldn’t quite get there. We waited till the last few overs, hoping that since he had spent some time in the middle, he’d be able to get the hit out of the way. But he was struggling, and in those moments, you need someone fresh. It’s not nice to take someone out like that, but it was a tactical call at that point,” said Jayawardene.
“It’s just tactical; don’t make too many assumptions.” According to the MI coach, there isn’t much to infer from the call and the choice was made solely for tactical reasons. “It was purely tactical. We’re just taking one guy out and bringing another in. Don’t read too much into it-just a game-based decision,” said Jayawardene. MI will be next in action against RCB on Monday, April 7.
