Sunday's IPL game between Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants witnessed a historic first.
Batting first Rajasthan Royals were 135/4, when on the second delivery of the 19th over, all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin, after completing a single through the covers off the bowling of Avesh Khan, walked off the field.
Ashwin had scored a decent 28 from 23 balls and had hit two sixes. His strike rate was 121.74. The numbers were not good enough by lofty standards of slog overs in T20 cricket.
At that stage, Lucknow Super Giants would have loved that Ashwin carried on for a little longer which would have confined the big hitter Riyan Parag in the dugout for a little more time.
The smart cricketer that he is, Ashwin, after completing that single, just walked out of the ground making way for Parag.
Ashwin had not been dismissed in any legal way possible in cricket. Neither he had picked up an injury that could have him to leave the field. Ashwin by his own wish just departed from the scene.
In the official scoreboard, Ashwin is shown to be "retired out
".
It was a tactical move to jack up the team’s final score.
It was the first for the IPL but not the first instance in T20 cricket when a player has got himself "retired out" to make way for a more suitable batter. Hailed as the new innovation in T20 cricket, retired-out dismissals are made by teams to maximise each ball.
In the T20 format, teams can't afford a less-than-ideal batter in situations suited to other batters. For instance, if a team needs a pinch hitter on the ground in the final overs and the current batter on the field is not known for his strike rate, a retired out dismissal gives a way to allow the replacement.
In the post-match conference, Kumar Sangakkara, the Royals director of cricket said, “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.”
Royals' captain Sanju Samson echoed the opinion saying, "It's about being Rajasthan Royals. We keep trying different things. We have been talking about it before the season."
Here is how “retired hurt” differs from “retired out”
Retired hurt: If a batter retires during his innings because of injury, illness, or any other unavoidable reasons, he/she is considered retired hurt. In this case, he can resume his innings later in the game after at least one batter is dismissed following his departure from the crease. There have been multiple instances where a player has left the field after an injury only to join back after recovering a bit.
Retired out: If a batter retires during his innings for any reason other than injury, illness, or any unavoidable reasons, he/she is considered retired out. In this case, the player can resume his innings only with the consent of the opposing captain. Rare in professional cricket, the retired out practice is just a tactic to bring in a more suitable batter on the field. The concept has always been popular in gully cricket where someone who plays too many dot balls is asked to make way for another batter.
Trivia: A T20 game between Belize and Panama saw the first-ever incidence of a team retire-out a batter. Belize opener Howell Gillett was struggling after managing just 8 from 23 balls. That was when the team withdrew Gillett for the next batter.
Check: IPL 2022 coverage here
Author: StoryTailors
(Edited by : Prakhar Sachdeo)
First Published: Apr 11, 2022 4:38 PM IST
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