• Krunal Pandya left the field midway during Lucknow Super Giants' batting against Mumbai Indians.

  • Fans had a mixed reaction to Krunal's injury.

IPL 2023: Netizens react after Krunal Pandya retires hurt during LSG vs MI clash
Krunal Pandya leaving the field (Image Source: Twitter)

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) stand-in skipper Krunal Pandya stunned everyone with his leadership skill and earned many praises for his captaincy in the match against Mumbai Indians (MI) on May 16. It was due to Krunal’s brilliance of giving the last over to Mohsin Khan only that LSG emerged victorious in the contest by five runs, Notably, Mohsin successfully defended ten runs in the final over of the game and played a significant role in the Lucknow-based team’s win.

Apart from Krunal’s captaincy, what turned out to be a major discussion on the internet was him retiring out while batting on 49 after sustaining an injury during the first innings. However, the LSG skipper later came back onto the field post the mid-innings and even completed his quota of four overs. While many considered it as a tactical move from Krunal to retire hurt himself, and , some termed it as against the spirit of the game.

Among all India’s star spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin also raised questions on Krunal’s move. The Rajasthan Royals‘ (RR) off-spinner took to Twitter and wrote: “Retired out? #LSGvsMI #KrunalPandya”

Although Ashwin’s stance initially seemed to be against Krunal, his response to one of the fan made it clear that he has no problem with what happened during the LSG-MI clash as it was right as per the cricketing rules.

“Utterly cheating” wrote the fan.

“The rules permit you to do it! There is no cheating,” responded Ashwin.

It is noteworthy that the cricket rules allow a batter to retire themselves out at any point with the condition that they won’t be able to bat afterwards. Meanwhile, in case of retired hurt, the player can come and bat in the later part of the innings.

Speaking of Krunal, the all-rounder was retired hurt during the match against MI. Many cricket enthusiasts took it as a deliberate move of Krunal to make way for Nicholas Pooran in the slog overs and also shared a few hilarious memes on the internet.

Here’s how netizens reacted:

https://twitter.com/aftab169/status/1658505900095860737

https://twitter.com/Vibs_5/status/1658513840743800834

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CATEGORY: IPL Krunal Pandya Twitter Reactions

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About the Author:
VISHWANATH HARIHARAN
Vishwanath Hariharan is Content Strategist at CricketTimes.com. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. From breaking news stories to in-depth features and opinion pieces, he has covered a wide range of topics. Vishwanath is very fond of watching cricket. Like many others, he too grew up watching, playing, and imitating his favourite players of the game. MS Dhoni is like a demigod to him. You can connect with him at vishwanath.hariharan@crickettimes.com and follow him on Twitter & Linkedin.