Playing flagbearer to a potentially game-transforming move, Ravichandran Ashwin believes more teams will be utilising the tactical retire-out in the future in T20 and IPL cricket. For him, teams are “already late” in availing the advantages of the ploy that his side Rajasthan Royals used to great effect in their recent IPL 2022 match.
Playing against the Lucknow Super Giants in Mumbai, RR sent the 35-year-old at No.6 with the intention to use his solid defensive game in arresting a collapse from 67/4. The idea was also to allow their designated power-hitter Riyan Parag a more suited entry point.
Ashwin did his job well, contributing a useful 28 off 23 balls in a critical 68-run partnership with Shimron Hetmyer. But once he had accomplished his role, with 10 balls remaining, the RR think-tank led by coach Kumar Sangakkara had a brief discussion with Ashwin, and it was decided in agreement that he’ll walk back in the shed, thus making him the IPL’s first-ever tactical retire-out.
Parag faced only four balls for his eight runs, but in his presence and the given situation with RR recovered from their collapse, Hetmyer could now go for the big shorts wholeheartedly. From 135/5 at the point of Ashwin returning, Royals finished with 165/6 by the end of the 20th over. They eventually won the game by three runs.
Speaking of the entire episode on his YouTube channel, Ashwin said it was a pragmatic decision from his side after considering that he wasn’t hitting the ball cleanly towards the end and more capable Parag would’ve helped RR maximise the death-overs phase a lot better.
“It was just a tactical move. In fact, Riyan Parag has been batting very well and when the [K] Gowtham over [16th over] ended, I gave myself some time – five to six balls – to see whether I can hit a six or two fours. There were a few balls in the slot, I tried to hit, and mistimed a bit,”
“I threw the kitchen sink at everything, but I couldn’t get the timing going. Someone like Riyan Parag was in the shed and there were only ten balls remaining. If he comes and hits even two sixes, we could get a good score. It was a tactical decision.”
he said.
As was the case with him upholding the run-out at the non-striker’s end, Ashwin only did as the rule books allow. A batter is allowed by the law book to retire out in the middle of his innings. But teams have historically shown a conventional outlook about this form of dismissal despite suggestions from various corners to call back the batter who may be hurting their progress with a slow innings in a short and sharp format like T20.
Ashwin said once more and more teams employ the tactical retire-out, they will be able to detach a “stigma” around it, as he had hoped at the time of infamously running-out Jos Buttler at the non-striker’s end in IPL 2019.
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Despite it being an integral part of the run-out laws, traditionalists have attached a taboo to this form of dismissal and countlessly referred to the unwritten ‘Spirit of Cricket‘ to back their case.
Ashwin faced a lot of flak from certain corners for his decision to run-out Buttler even as he did what the law books allow: run-out the batter trying to steal an extra inch at the other end by stepping outside of his crease even before the bowler releases the ball. In T20s, where a run here and there often decides the contest, these inches make a huge difference.
