'Remember Tewatia' - Mohammad Kaif warns teams to think twice before retiring out players

Former India player Mohammad Kaif opened up on teams retiring out their players in the last few matches of the IPL 2025. Kaif felt the teams were retiring their key players out more out of frustration. The Under-19 World Cup winning captain claimed there are not a lot of batters in the world who could hit the ball right from the word 'go'.

Kaif felt the batters, who are retired out after getting set, might actually have a better chance of winning the game than the ones who replace them. He reminded everyone of Rahul Tewatia's heroics in IPL 2020 where he was 8(19) at one point and hit five sixes in a row against Sheldon Cottrell to help RR pull off a heist against PBKS in Sharjah.

"Teams using retired out option more out of frustration. It's a tactic that rarely works as there are very few batters who can hit a 6 on first ball they face. Most times it is the struggling batsman on crease who has a better chance of winning the game. Remember Tewatia, he hit 5 sixes in 5 balls after he has made 8 runs of 19 balls," wrote Kaif.

Also Read - It was too late by the time CSK retired Devon Conway out: Piyush Chawla

Retired Out dismissals in IPL 2025

Two batters have been retired out in IPL 2025 so far. Tilak Varma had to make way for Mitchell Santner, as he was struggling to time the ball against Lucknow Super Giants The southpaw scored 25 runs in 23 balls when MI needed 24 runs in the last seven balls. MI was forced to bring Santner in the hope of a better performance than Tilak.

Likewise, CSK replaced Devon Conway with Ravindra Jadeja against Punjab Kings. Conway was 69(49) and could not time the ball well at the end. Jadeja scored 9*(5) but could not get his team over the line. Incidentally, both MI and CSK lost their matches when they executed their respective retired out dismissal.