Making sense of the double-edged sword called ‘retired out’ Premium

Making sense of the double-edged sword called ‘retired out’

It was a routine Wednesday night — inasmuch as a Wednesday night with India playing a Twenty20 International can be routine — until it wasn’t.

The series had been won and lost. In Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s comeback to the 20-over scheme of things internationally in India’s final engagements before the T20 World Cup, the hosts had taken a winning 2-0 lead over Afghanistan. Kohli had missed the first game due to personal reasons while Rohit had been dismissed without scoring in both victories, run out in the first match in Mohali and bowled in the next in Indore.

For both, 17 January 2024 was an important date – their last T20I before the World Cup in the Americas. Kohli was dismissed for a first-ball duck, one of four wickets India lost in the PowerPlay. At 22 for four with 93 deliveries remaining, everything pointed to a consolation maiden T20I victory for Afghanistan over their Big Brother.

Until Rohit decided it was time to show everyone who the boss was. With Rinku Singh for company, the captain initiated a rescue act. And more than five years after his previous T20I hundred, the opener added a fifth to his tally, an unbeaten 121 off 69 which, coupled with Rinku’s 69 not out, hauled India to 212 for four.

Afghanistan replied in kind through their top order and finished on 212 for six, sending the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium crowd into raptures and setting up a Super Over. Where the Afghans batted first and made 16. Thanks to Rohit’s two sixes, India reached 15 with one ball to spare. The skipper was at the non-striker’s end after a single off the fifth ball, had a word with the umpire and trudged off. Rinku replaced him in the middle, ostensibly because he was the quicker runner.  Yashasvi Jaiswal managed just one off the last ball, sending the match spiralling to a second Super Over. Rohit Sharma, presumably retired out, a tactical move.

Wait. Forget about presumably. It seems he hadn’t retired out. Because otherwise, how could he have come out to bat in the second Super Over? The rules clearly stipulate that a batter who has been dismissed — in any mode, which includes retired out — is ineligible to bat in any subsequent Super Over. Oh well…

In the immediacy of that game — oh, India won in the second Super Over, with Rohit slamming a six and a four in his team’s 11 for two, and Ravi Bishnoi picking up two wickets in the first three deliveries to derail Afghanistan — head coach Rahul Dravid practically acknowledged that Rohit had retired himself out. “Taking himself out was Ashwin-level thinking. That’s Ash-level thinking,” Dravid, who thinks little of repeating himself when he feels the need to stress a point, told the host broadcaster.