‘It was a team decision’: Sanju Samson opens up on Ravi Ashwin’s retire out decision
Sanju Samson-Ravichandran Ashwin(image source : BCCI)
Rajasthan took on Lucknow in the 20th match of the Indian T20 League 2022 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The match went down to the wire and the two teams fought till the last over of the match. Rajasthan won the match by 3 runs and registered their third win 4 matches.
Lucknow won the toss in the match and decided to field first. They had a steady start to their innings, but experienced a mini-collapse as the middle order crumbled. From 42 for 1 in 5.1 overs, Rajasthan was reduced to 67 for 4 in 9.5 overs. The team decided to send in Ravichandran Ashwin to steady the ship. Ashwin kept rotating the strike and Shimron Hetmyer at the other went after the bowlers. The duo got Rajasthan to a score of 133 runs in 18 overs.
During the 19th over of the innings, everybody witnessed something unique. Ashwin decided to retire out himself so that the team can go for the kill in the last 9 deliveries and put up an even formidable score. Riyan Parag replaced Ashwin and scored 8 runs off 4 deliveries, a knock fitting the situation. Rajasthan ultimately finished with a score of 165 runs in their 20 overs, which they defended successfully.
The skipper of the Rajasthan team, Sanju Samson explained the decision of retiring Ashwin out in the press match conference. “We keep trying different things. Have been talking about it before the season. We thought that if some situation occurs, we can use it. Was a team decision,”- Samson said.
It was something that happened for the first time in the Indian T20 League. But fans can be less assured that teams will often be employing this as a strategy. Rajasthan team will be remembered as the pioneer of utilizing this unique strategy.
