Mohammad Kaif, a former cricketer and now a commentator, has expressed strong opinions about a new practice in the ongoing Indian Premier League 2025, where teams are opting to retire players out during games. This season has seen a couple of instances where batters have been called back, which has sparked a lot of discussion among fans and experts.
For example, in Match 16, the Mumbai Indians decided to send Tilak Varma back to the pavilion while he was batting on a score of 25 off 23 balls. At that time, the team needed 24 runs from just seven balls to win against Lucknow Super Giants. It was definitely a risky move. Similarly, the Chennai Super Kings made a surprising choice by recalling Devon Conway when he was on fire with 69 runs off 49 balls. They needed 49 runs from 13 balls against Punjab Kings. Unfortunately, both teams ended up losing the matches, and Kaif isn’t holding back when it comes to his opinions on this strategy.
Kaif believes that teams are turning to this retired out option more because they’re frustrated than because it’s a sound strategy. He referred to a past match where Rahul Tewatia played a crucial role for his team despite starting slowly. In that 2020 IPL match against Punjab Kings, he hit five sixes in just five balls, ultimately leading his team to victory. Kaif’s point is pretty straightforward: the player already at the crease often has a better shot at winning the game rather than bringing in a fresh batter who hasn’t faced any balls yet.
In terms of history, only five players have been retired out during IPL matches. The first to do so was Ravichandran Ashwin, who played for Rajasthan Royals back in the 2022 season against Lucknow Super Giants. After him, Atharva Taide from Punjab Kings and Sai Sudharsan from Gujarat Titans also experienced being retired out in 2023. Following them, both Tilak Varma and Devon Conway joined this unusual list. So far, the success rate of this tactic isn’t great, with only Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Titans managing to win their matches when they made use of this rule.
So, while it might seem like a clever trick in theory, it’s not paying off much in practice, leaving a lot of people wondering if teams should really continue with it going forward.