Mumbai Indians (MI) haven’t started the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season on the right note. Known for their poor starts, MI have lost three of their first four matches. It’s expected that they’ll catch up, but this isn’t the MI of old.
There have been speculations that all isn’t well in the dressing room since last year. Ever since Hardik Pandya was brought back to replace Rohit Sharma as the MI captain, things just haven’t been great. They ended the IPL 2024 season dead last, and things haven’t gone well so far.
Mumbai Indians’ Sub-out Controversy
Something fanned the fire in their last defeat to the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). With MI needing 24 runs from just 7 balls to win, he decided that he’d retire out Tilak Varma. Although viewed as one of the most talented batters going around, Tilak wasn’t timing the ball well against LSG.
He only scored 25 (23) in the 204-run chase, so Hardik sent him out and brought Mitchell Santner in. The MI captain called the decision ‘obvious’ since Tilak was struggling in the middle. But this didn’t go well. Many ex-players, like Hanuma Vihari and Harbhajan Singh, expressed unhappiness with the decision. Some even claimed that this would tank Tilak’s confidence.
Why was Tilak Varma retired out?
According to Cricbuzz, Tilak wasn’t retired due to his inability to get going. The 22-year-old had injured his palm in training a day before the LSG clash. Both he and Rohit were touch and go. In the end, Tilak played, but the former MI captain had to sit out due to a knee injury.
It appears that the palm injury was the reason why Tilak was called back with just seven balls left. The MI captain or management haven’t publicly stated so, but the batter was having issues due to it. One can speculate about the MI dressing room as much as they want, but it seems like Tilak Varma retired out for tactical and injury prevention reasons.
