“People don’t know” - Hardik Pandya finally reveals the reason behind Tilak Varma’s ‘retire out’ controversy

Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya has finally opened up on Tilak Varma’s retire out controversy incident, which happened in the game against the Lucknow Super Giants, which MI lost by 12 runs on Friday, April 4.

Pandya revealed that while a lot of people talked about different things on the incident, the truth is that his finger injury, which he sustained a day before the game in the nets session, resulted in Tilak not being able to concentrate for a long time.

“Last game, a lot of things happened. People made a lot of things about it, but people don’t know that he had a very nasty hit the previous day," Pandya stated at the post-match presentation ceremony after the game against RCB.

“It was a tactical call, but because of the finger (injury) which he had, the coach just felt that that was a better option that someone fresh can come and do it. Today, he was fantastic," he added.

In the 20th match of the IPL 2025 season, Tilak Varma played an exceptional knock, scoring 56 runs in 29 balls with four fours and as many sixes. However, his knock wasn’t enough for MI to cross the winning line. Nevertheless, Pandya hailed Tilak for his exceptional batting efforts.

“Today, he was fantastic. In these sorts of games, power plays are very crucial. Couple of overs we were not able to get in the middle, that put us back in the chase. It comes down to execution in the death - we were not able to play those balls,” Pandya talked about Tilak

“It was a run-fest. The wicket was really good. I was just talking about that to myself that again we fell short with two hits, I don't have much to say,” Pandya stressed on the flat track that was produced for the MI game.

Stay updated with the latest cricket news, match insights, and exclusive updates at Sky365 and download the Sky365 App to start betting today!