Suryakumar Yadav protests decision to retire out Tilak Varma in MI dug out, coach Mahela Jayawardene calms him down

It's a bit unusual to be in the Mumbai Indians dressing room. Two current Team India captains - Rohit Sharma in ODIs and Tests and Suryakumar Yadav (T20Is) - play under Hardik Pandya, who is not even the vice-captain in any format. It says a lot about the Mumbai Indians ownership and management. They do what they feel is in MI's best interest. They didn't shy away from appointing Rohit Sharma as the captain in the middle of the season in 2013, they didn't shy away from replacing the same Rohit with Hardik Pandya last year. They didn't shy away from retiring out Tilak Varma after he could not hit boundaries in a 204-run chase against Lucknow Super Giants. MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene tries to explain his decision to retire out Tilak Varma

Each of those decisions was looked out of the corner of the eye. There was a lot of backlash for Rohit's removal and Hardik's appointment. Retiring out Tilak is unlikely to draw similar reactions, but it definitely attracted its fair share of criticism and bewilderment.

Former India cricketers Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag and Mohammad Kaif could see no logic behind retiring out Tilak Varma and replacing him with Mitchell Santner, who is not exactly known for his six-hitting abilities.

But if MI had to guess the general reaction to their decision of calling back Tilak then need not look too far away. Their very own Suryakumar Yadav didn't like it at all.

Suryakumar Yadav not happy with MI's decision to retire out Tilak Varma

MI needed 29 runs off 12 balls with Tilak and Hardik Pandya in the middle. Shardul Thakur had the ball in hand for LSG and the medium pacer hit yorkers and low full tosses with precision, not allowing Hardik and Tilak to get under the ball to hit it in the air. All the pair managed were five singles - two from Tilak and three from Pandya. Then came a defining moment in the game.

Instead of taking strike for the final ball of the 19th over, Tilak started to walk back to the pavilion and in walked Santner. The commentators announced that Tilak, who had scored 25 off 23 balls, hitting only two boundaries, was retiring out.

When Santner was walking out to bat and Tilak was coming back, the Surya, sitting in the dugout could not believe it. He was seen launching a mini protest to the decision. MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene then walked up to Surya to explain the rationale behind the decision. Surya did not react after that but India's T20I captain did not seem convinced at all.

It is to be mentioned that Surya is one of Tilak's biggest admirers. He famously sacrificed his No.3 spot in India's T20I side after Tilak smashed his maiden international century.

Surya had every reason to be disheartened. After all, MI had an equal chance to chase the target until SKY was batting in the middle. Only when he got out while trying to scoop an Avesh Khan delivery for six in the 17th over did the match turn in LSG's favour. Surya scored 67 off 43 balls, but it was not enough to take MI over the line, as they lost the match by 12 runs.

Jayawardene the mastermind behind retiring out Tilak Varma

After the match, Jayawardene revealed that it was his call to call back Tilak Varma and send Mitchell Santner.

"I think Tilak batted well for us when we lost that wicket and that partnership with Surya and he just wanted to get going but he just couldn't then and I waited till the last few overs hoping that because he spent some time there so he should have been able to get that hit out of the way but I just felt that at the end I just needed someone fresh to go and he was struggling when these things happen in cricket and not nice to take him out but I had to do that, it was a tactical decision at that point," Jayawardene told reporters in the press conference.

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