Ravichandran Ashwin broke his silence on the retired out decision after becoming the first player in IPL history to opt for the move.
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Ravichandran Ashwin is an out-of-the-box cricketer. He was the first player in IPL to opt to dismiss a batter via the mankading mode of dismissal and later became the first to be withdrawn from batting through retired out decision on Sunday in the IPL 2022 match against LSG.
However, RR captain Sanju Samson, clarified after the match that the decision to withdraw Ashwin in the slog overs was a call made by the team management, taking into consideration the match situation.
According to Law 25.4.1, any batter can retire at any time. Law 25.4.3 confirms that if there is no injury or illness it’s ‘Retired – out’ and the batter cannot return in that innings without consent of the opposing captain
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Ashwin, later, broke his silence on the tactical move and said that often during the euphoria of the match, players tend to forget that cricket is a team sport and a decision can be taken in favour of their franchise.
“It was an in the moment thing,” Ashwin told Cricbuzz when asked about the time when he decided to sacrifice his wicket.
“It’s a team game that we often forget in the euphoria. But then it’s an important aspect of the game we haven’t considered.”
The prolific all-rounder also gave a footballing analogy to the retired out decision.
“T20 is more of a team game than we all know. It is almost as much as football. The goal scorers are like your opening batter or wicket-takers. But they are worth it only if your goalkeeper or defenders are ready to do what it takes,” Ashwin, who has played 171 IPL matches, said.
Kumar Sangakkara, the mentor of RR in IPL 2022, said that it was the right thing to do in the situation.
Ashwin was withdrawn to allow Riyan Parag to step in to bat, who contributed eight runs, which later turned out to be useful in their three-run win over LSG.
“It was a combination of both [Ashwin and RR management]. It was the right time to do that, Ashwin himself was asking from the field as well, and we had discussed it just before that, as to what we would do,” the former Sri Lanka skipper said after the game.
