Former India player Aakash Chopra has questioned who decided to retire out Tilak Varma in the MI’s IPL 2025 clash against the LSG. While guessing that the MI head coach, Mahela Jayawardene, took the call, he wondered whether it was the right call as well. However, LSG set a 204-run target, although Tilak retired after scoring a 23-ball 25, the move didn’t help them as they were restricted to 191/5 and lost the game by 12 runs as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “Runs weren’t coming from Tilak Varma’s bat. He was struggling for strike and form, and whatever else. Hardik (Pandya) came and played a few good shots, and then Tilak Varma was retired out. Whose decision was it? Was it the captain’s or the team management’s? I feel it was Mahela Jayawardene’s.”

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“He went and had a few discussions as well, but was it an upgrade? It’s not preposterous to retire someone out but you need to have someone incredible after that. You sent Mitchell Santner. He took two runs off the first ball, and Hardik didn’t give him the strike after that. If you weren’t going to give the strike to Mitchell Santner, you wouldn’t have given it to Tilak Varma as well. So what difference would it have made?” he shared.

Reflecting on the rest of MI’s batting, Aakash Chopra praised Naman Dhir (46 off 24) for playing a stunning knock after Will Jacks (5 off 7) and Ryan Rickelton (10 off 5) had been dismissed very cheaply.

“They needed a strong start, but they didn’t get it. Neither Ryan Rickelton nor Will Jacks (scored runs), and Rohit Sharma wasn’t there this time. Naman Dhir came and shone. He was playing very well until he played. Suryakumar Yadav creates different angles. He is absolutely different. He hits towards fine leg against balls that can’t go there, but he does it. He was also hitting over cover. He was absolutely beautiful while he lasted. Till the time he was batting, the match was in Mumbai’s favor,” Aakash Chopra concluded.