Tilak Varma joined a rare and growing list of IPL players to be retired out during a match as Mumbai Indians faced a heartbreaking 21-run defeat against Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Stadium on Thursday. With MI needing 22 runs off the final over, the team management opted to retire out Tilak after a sluggish 25 off 23 balls, bringing in Mitchell Santner as a last-over gamble.
This makes Tilak the fourth player in IPL history to be retired out — after Ravichandran Ashwin (2022), Atharva Taide (2023) and Sai Sudharsan (2023).
Here’s a list of Retired Outs in the IPL:
| Player | Opponent | Venue | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| R Ashwin | vs LSG | Wankhede | 2022 |
| Atharva Taide | vs DC | Dharamshala | 2023 |
| Sai Sudharsan | vs MI | Ahmedabad | 2023 |
| Tilak Varma | vs LSG | Lucknow | 2025 |
However, the move backfired as Santner could not even get strike for most of the final over. Avesh Khan, bowling the 20th, held his nerve and conceded just one boundary while defending the target. The decision to retire Tilak, who was set but scoring slowly, was seen by many fans and analysts as too little, too late.
LSG continued their dominance over Mumbai Indians — winning 6 out of 7 encounters against them, including all three matches at the Ekana Stadium. MI’s only win came in the 2023 Eliminator in Chepauk.
Thursday’s match also produced a match aggregate of 394 runs, making it the second-highest total in 46 T20 matches played at Ekana, just one run short of the 395-run aggregate between LSG and RR last year.
