Ravichandran Ashwin questioned Krunal Pandya’s retired hurt call, calling it ‘retired ‘out’ instead (Twitter Image)
Ravichandran Ashwin questioned whether Krunal Pandya was retired ‘hurt’ or was he retired ‘out’ during Lucknow Super Giants’ match against Mumbai Indians
Ravichandran Ashwin was one of the first players to react after Krunal Pandya retired hurt, as the Rajasthan Royals spinner hinted that it was a ‘tactical move’ from the Lucknow Super Giants against Mumbai Indians.
LSG hosted Rohit Sharma’s MI at the Ekana Stadium on Tuesday, May 16 as both sides looking for a win which would boost their place in the IPL 2023 playoffs race.
Rohit had won the toss and elected to bowl first after which LSG were off to a shaky start having lost three wickets early on. Deepak Hooda and Prerak Mankad fell on consecutive deliveries from Jason Behrendroff, while Piyush Chawla dismissed Quinton de Kock on 16.
Pandya however steadied the ship and played a crucial knock of 49 runs in 42 balls however, before he could notch his fifty, the LSG skipper was retired hurt as he picked up an injury and walked off the field.
As soon as Krunal made his way off the ground though, Rajasthan Royals spinner Ravichandran Ashwin questioned whether Pandya was actually hurt, or he came off to allow Nicholas Pooran to join Marcus Stoinis in the middle.
“Retired out?”, tweeted Ashwin, and plenty of fans agreed with the veteran spinner that indeed, Krunal sacrificed his fifty to allow Pooran to come onto the field.
Many fans agreed with Ashwin’s reading of the game.
I just hope Krunal’s hoping back out of the ground was not done to justify the fairness of the retired out.He is back after 2 min.
I am hoping he really had some niggle#MIvLSG
— ishan (@ishantropy) May 16, 2023
Lucknow Super Giants meanwhile were able to reach 177/3 having lost three early wickets courtesy of Marcus Stoinis’ blistering 89-run unbeaten knock. Stoinis smashed 4 boundaries and 8 sixes, helping his side reach a fightworthy total with his inning which came in just 47 balls.
Mumbai Indians’ death bowling woes continued as they leaked runs aplenty in the last couple of overs, Stoinis was the architect in chief of LSG’s revival.