Tilak Varma becomes the fourth player to be retired out in the IPL history.
Mumbai Indians (MI) batter Tilak Varma retired out during their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 match against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in Lucknow on Friday. He came in as an impact player during MI’s chase, replacing young spinner Vignesh Puthur. Tilak scored 25 runs from 23 balls before deciding to walk off himself in the 19th over, when MI needed 24 runs from seven balls.
Mitchell Santner came in to bat right after Tilak Varma retired out. It looked like a tactical move by the Mumbai Indians team, but it didn’t help them win. Mumbai could not chase the target and lost the match by 12 runs. They ended their innings at 191 for five in 20 overs.
This was only the fourth time in IPL history that a batter has retired out. Let’s now look at the other three players who were retired out.
Ravichandran Ashwin was the first player in IPL history to be tactically retired out during a match between Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2022. He came in to bat at No.6 in the 10th over and scored 28 runs off 23 balls. In the 19th over, with the score at 135 for four, Ashwin walked off to allow another batter to come in, most likely to speed up the scoring.
Following Ashwin’s exit, Rajasthan Royals added 30 more runs and ended their innings at 165 for five. The move turned out to be helpful, as they went on to win the match by just three runs.
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Atharva Taide was the second player in IPL history to be retired out during a match against Delhi Capitals in IPL 2023. He was batting on 55 from 42 balls when Punjab Kings decided to bring in Jitesh Sharma instead. Punjab Kings were chasing 213 runs and still needed 86 runs in the last five overs. The required run rate increased rapidly and was 17.2 when Jitesh arrived.
Players like Jitesh Sharma, Shahrukh Khan, and Sam Curran were still to bat, so the move looked good. Taide was not scoring fast, so they tried something different. But the plan didn’t work, as Punjab lost the match by 15 runs.
Gujarat Titans batter Sai Sudharsan was the third player in IPL history to be retired out during Qualifier 2 against Mumbai Indians in IPL 2023. He was batting on 43 off 31 balls with a strike rate close to 140, but walked off before the final over to let Rashid Khan try and finish the innings with a flourish.
Rashid made an immediate impact by hitting a boundary off the first ball he faced. Gujarat Titans ended with a massive total of 233 runs, thanks to a brilliant 120 off just 60 balls by Shubman Gill. Gujarat went on to win the match comfortably by 62 runs.
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