Mumbai Indians (MI) head coach Mahela Jayawardene has revealed that it was his decision to retire Tilak Varma who was struggling to up the ante in the chase against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Friday. Tilak Varma walked off to the dugout after scoring 25 off 23 in a chase of 204 at the Ekana Stadium.
At the time of Tilak’s departure, MI were still in need of 24 runs from the last seven balls to win their second match in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. They, however, were only able to add 11 runs more with captain Hardik Pandya scoring 28 not out off 16 while Mitchell Santner, who replaced Tilak, finished on two from two balls.
While Hardik is facing a lot of criticism on social media platforms for sending Tilak back, coach Jayawardene has explained that it was his decision. The former Sri Lankan batter termed it a “tactical” call.
“Tilak batted well for us when we lost that [third] wicket, and [built] that partnership with Surya. He wanted to get going but just couldn’t. He waited till the last few overs hoping; because you spent some time, you should have been able to get that hit out of the way. But I felt that in the end we just needed someone fresh to have a go when he was struggling.
“These things happen in cricket and it was not nice to take him out, but I had to do that. That was a tactical decision at that point,” Jayawardene said in the press conference.
