Ravichandran Ashwin was declared “retired out” for technical reasons when he went back to let Riyan Parag in the 19th over of Rajasthan’s innings against Lucknow Super Giants. Tactically retiring out is not a common phenomenon in cricket, so when Ashwin walked back to the team’s block last evening, some heads turned.
The move created a bit of confusion, which made it seem like Ashwin was the one who single-handedly took the decision. However, it was later revealed that it was the team’s call, and the move was decided before the innings started.
Though retired out has been there in the laws of cricket for many years, it took Ravi Ashwin's out of the box thinking to provide first such instance in IPL.
Teams will now use retired out as a strategical tool than care about batter's reputation. #RRvsLSG #LSGvRR #IPL2022
— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) April 10, 2022
The reason why teams intentionally opt for the ‘retired hurt’ is that they want to give the chance to play, to as many batters as they can. Or it might be done to bring that one batter who they think can make a difference.
The ICC(International Cricket Council) law on this form of dismissal states:
A batsman retires out if he retires without the umpire’s permission and does not have the permission of the opposing captain to resume his innings. If such a return does not occur, the batman is marked as ‘retired out’. This is considered a wicket and used to calculate a batting average.
Though retired out has been there in the laws of cricket for many years, it took Ravi Ashwin's out of the box thinking to provide first such instance in IPL.
Teams will now use retired out as a strategical tool than care about batter's reputation. #RRvsLSG #LSGvRR #IPL2022
— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) April 10, 2022
Though people seem to think this violates the spirit of the game, which warrants hustle, you can’t quit. As Stephen Fleming puts it,” That’s part of the battle, isn’t it? Even if you are not hitting it well, that constant battle is to come right. Not let someone get away with it just because they can tap out – Not my day today, I am out.”
I am not a big supporter of the retired out becoming a tactical ploy in cricket. Its because its the easy way out. Its driven by a mentality which reduces the meaning of sports to just wins or losses. It devoids sports of its best quality – being a platform for the show of +
— Gaurav Nandan Tripathi (@Cric_Beyond_Ent) April 10, 2022
There might be different opinions on this, but the fact remains that it is well within the rules. However, for Rajasthan, the move hardly paid off, Riyan came in and scored 8 runs off 4 balls. Ashwin, having scored 28 runs off 23 balls, could have scored much better on his own-contributing to the team’s run rate. Guess it was about taking that chance?
Royals won the match by 3 runs in the end and Yuzvendra Chahal was declared Player of the Match.
Reference: SchoopWhoop
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