Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra questioned Lucknow Super Giants’ tactics of not retiring out their opener Arshin Kulkarni after the team’s nine-run win against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on Thursday. 

Kulkarni trudged to 17 runs off 24 balls and could not change gears in his innings. The LSG opener added 95 runs off 56 balls with Mitchell Marsh but the Australian did the bulk of the scoring. Kulkarni was playing his first match of the season and found fielders at regular intervals.

“Why don’t we retire out batters? Why is it so taboo? Arshin Kulkarni was given a job to play in the Powerplay. He was more on the non-striker’s end and had to find singles. In fact, this was their first Powerplay in which they didn’t lose a wicket. However, he was going slower than a run-a-ball,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.

“He scored 17 runs off 24 balls. If Mitchell Marsh is scoring 111 runs off 56 balls, it means he has scored 111 runs off 9.2 overs, and the match had been reduced to 19 overs, but from the other end, only 17 runs were scored in four overs. At some stage, you have to decide that the kid is good and is trying, but is unable to do it, so you should call him out,” he elaborated.

Chopra reckons batters and bowlers are treated differently by experts when they are having bad days at the office.

“If a bowler bowls badly, do you keep giving him overs repeatedly? However, we don’t do that with batters. It’s a taboo topic that we shouldn’t retire out anyone. I think it should have been done in this match. There is no shame in retiring out anyone. Batters will have to be retired out,” Chopra observed.

Lucknow Super Giants will next take on Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, on Sunday.