CHENNAI: Retiring out Tilak Varma left everyone bewildered be it former cricketers-turned-pundits, die-hard fans or the childhood coach of the Hyderabad batter Salam Bayash. "It was beyond anyone's understanding," coach Salam told this daily.
Playing as an impact player, Tilak was batting on 25 off 23 alongside skipper Hardik Pandya when the call was made. At that time, Mumbai Indians needed 24 from the last seven balls against hosts Lucknow Super Giants on Friday.
What followed was bizarre. As Tilak started walking back to the pavilion and New Zealand limited-overs skipper Mitchell Santner was getting in to replace him, Suryakumar Yadav, sitting in the MI dugout, looked visibly upset and apparently protested the move. Such was India's T20I skipper's displeasure that MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene reportedly had to rush towards him to explain the rationale behind the move.
For the record, the left-hand-batter from Hyderabad has the second-best batting average (49.93) in T20Is with only Sami Muhammad Sohail of Malawi, an associate member of ICC, ahead of him. Tilak's strike rate of 155.07 from 25 international matches is the best among the top five in the list that also includes star India batter Virat Kohli and Pakistan skipper Mohammad Rizwan.
The 22-year-old has been with the Mumbai franchise since 2022 scoring 1251 runs at a strike rate of 143.13. In T20Is, he is only the second India batter to hit two consecutive centuries after Sanju Samson.
"He (Tilak) usually calls me after every match and yesterday (Friday) too I got a call from him. I told him to focus on upcoming matches and not get upset with the decision. A lot depends on one's mindset and cricket is no different. If a player is mentally tough then he can navigate such challenges. I advised him to be mentally tough as being an international cricketer he will face such ups and downs quite often," added Bayash.
Quite a few former cricketers echoed the sentiments with ex-India opener Virender Sehwag particularly harsh with his views on the decision that made Varma only the fourth batter to get retired out in IPL. “I didn’t understand why they got him to retire out,” Sehwag told Cricbuzz post-match. “He had played 20-25 deliveries, yes his shots weren’t connecting, but it’s not like (Mitchell) Santner did something in the two balls he faced. If the last over was going to be faced by Hardik Pandya then why retire him?”
Varma usually bats at No 3 for India. For MI this season, Varma has batted twice at No 5 and once at No 3 in four matches. He didn't bat in Mumbai's match against Kolkata Knight Riders, the team's only win this season. He might be the second-leading scorer for the team this season (95 runs) with only Surya ahead of him but his strike rate of 113.09 has been below par so far.
"He bats at No 3 for India. It gives him a chance to build his innings. I understand, the demands in franchise cricket are different with so many power hitters in the squad but such moves can affect the morale of a player. Had Hardik or any other power hitter been in the dugout, the decision would have made sense to me but retiring him out for Santner is beyond any logic. But I am quite sure he will soon find his mojo back and start doing what he has been doing for the team for the past four years," signed off the coach.