Rajasthan Royals' off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is expecting to see a lot of retire out instances in the future and feels that it will not be a stigma move, like running out a batter from the non-striker's end.
On Sunday, Ashwin became the first batter in the IPL to retire out while batting for Rajasthan against Lucknow Super Giants. He was promoted to number six in the tenth over and after having scored 28 runs off 23 balls, Ashwin walked off after two balls of the 19th over when Royals were 135 for 4, to make way for Riyan Parag, who struck a six in one of the four balls he faced as Rajasthan eventually won by three runs.
"T20, as a sport, is heading towards where football has reached. Just like how they're using substitutions, I did something similar (by retiring out). Already we are late. But I believe this will happen a lot in the coming days. This won't be a stigma like running someone out at the non-striker's end. This will happen more times," said Ashwin on his Youtube channel.
