'It's about being Rajasthan Royals': Samson opens up on Ashwin's decision to be tactically retired out in IPL 2022 game

Sanju Samson revealed that it has been part of their discussion even before the start of the 15th season.

Rajasthan Royals cricketer R Ashwin in Sunday became the first player to the history of Indian Premier League (IPL) to be tactically retired out, a decision which was made during their game against Lucknow Super Giants. Ashwin was promoted up the order to bat at No.6 for the Royals, where he scored 28 off 23 before walking off the field retired out after facing just two balls in the 19th over. This allowed Rajasthan to send Riyan Parag, who scored 8 off 4 and ably supported Shimron Hetmyer at the other end, whose death-over blitzkrieg helped Rajasthan finish with 165. Explaining the decision after the match, Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson revealed that it was a team decision.

Ravichandran Ashwin of Rajasthan Royals in action during match 20 of the Indian Premier League 2022 (PTI)

Samson revealed that it has been part of their discussion even before the start of the 15th season.

"It's about being Rajasthan Royals (Ashwin's retired-out). 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," he said in the post-match presentation.

However, even Hetmyer wasn't aware of that Ashwin would walk off at that stage and admitted in the mid-innings interview that he was rather shocked.

This was however, not the first ever tactical retired out in T20 cricket. In 2019, during the South Asian Games, Bhutan batsman Sonam Togbay had pulled off the same at the end of the 19th over in the match against Maldives.

Contrary to Samson, Kumar Sangakkara, RR's director of cricket, revealed that it was while the team had discussed it before it was entirely Ashwin's plan to sacrifice his own wicket.

"It was the right time to do that," said Sangakkara of Ashwin's decision. "Ashwin himself was asking from the field as well and we had discussed just before that as to what we would do. As the coach I got one call wrong not sending Riyan Parag ahead of Rassie van der Dussen and holding Rassie back so we couldn't get the full benefit of Riyan, but how Ashwin handled that situation, walking in under pressure, he batted, supported the team and then finally sacrificed himself in terms of retiring himself out and then backed it up with a magnificent bowling effort. And of course Boult. Yuzi Chahal, Prasidh Krishna and Kuldeep Sen all of these bowlers were outstanding under pressure with the dew."