During the 61st match of the IPL 2025 between Lucknow Super Giants and SunRisers Hyderabad (LSG vs SRH) in Lucknow, SRH captain Pat Cummins chose to field first after winning the toss. During the team announcement, while Harsh Dubey got his first IPL cap, Atharva Taide was also named among the impact players of the SRH team. 

Who is Atharva Taide?

The 25-year-old Atharva Taide is in the "Impact Player Subs" squad for SRH in the IPL 2025 Lucknow match against LSG. While it can be his first IPL 2025 match, he has already played nine IPL matches for Punjab Kings, seven in 2023 and two in 2024. While the left-handed batter scored 61 runs last season, he scored 186 runs in the 2023 season with an average of 26.57 and a strike rate of 144.18, including two half-centuries.  

Taide played two Youth Tests and four Youth ODIs for the India U19 team. During the 2018 Cooch Behar Trophy Final, he became the only second batter, after Yuvraj Singh (358), to hit a triple century in the final of the tournament history by scoring 320 runs as a captain of Vidarbha. 

See Also: IPL 2025: Who is Will O'Rourke making his IPL debut in LSG vs SRH game?

Who is Harsh Dubey?

The 22-year-old Indian uncapped all-rounder Harsh Dubey made his IPL debut in this game. He joined the SRH side as a replacement for the injured Smaran Ravichandran. The Vidarbha cricketer is known for his bowling all-rounder roles in domestic cricket. The left-arm spinner has recorded 97 wickets in 18 first-class matches, 21 wickets in 20 List A games, and nine wickets in 16 T20s. The left-handed batter has also scored 709 first-class runs, 213 List A runs, and 19 T20 runs, including seven and two half-centuries in first-class and List A cricket, respectively. 

While Vidarbha won the latest Ranji Trophy season (2024-25), Harsh Dubey won the Player of the Tournament award for his all-round performances, recording 69 wickets and 476 runs. His 69 wickets in a season were the new record for most wickets in a Ranji Trophy season.  

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is famous not only for exciting matches, good players, etc., but also for some moves that transform the game away from traditional performance. One great example is the tactical "retired out," in which a batter is dismissed without injury voluntarily as a result of a strategy to replace the batter with a different batter that makes sense from the context of the match.

1. Ravichandran Ashwin - Rajasthan Royals vs. LSG, 2022

Ashwin still wrote himself into the history books a little during IPL 2022, as he became the first player to be retired out. In this example, Rajasthan Royals chose to take Ashwin off in a match against Lucknow Super Giants in the 19th over so they could send in a more aggressive batter for the end-game thrust. Aside from shocking the vast majority, it opened some new strategic doors in the IPL.

Also Read: IPL 2025: 3 players who can replace Rishabh Pant as LSG captain

2. Atharva  Taide - Punjab Kings vs. DC, 2023

Punjab Kings retired Atharva after he made 26 in IPL 2023. Taide is making an impact on the field against Delhi Capitals. While he was consistently able to provide the foundation with the bat, he often couldn’t raise the pace in bursts when the side needed an influx of runs all of a sudden. His team management further decided to remove him from play for the duration, emphasizing that this “retired out” option was not merely a one-off response.

3. Sai Sudharsan - GT vs. MI, 2023

The second instance, well on the verge of becoming a trend, came in the same season when Gujarat Titans employed tactical retirement to retire out Sai Sudharsan against Mumbai Indians. It was a smart gamble to add a known playoff sniper and represented that franchises were willing to get aggressive and take chances, even with their growing young core.

Also Read: IPL 2025: SRH vs GT - A Head to Head breakdown

4. Tilak Varma - Mumbai Indians vs. LSG, 2025

It doesn’t stop here; the further names you could be adding to this list as of right now are Tilak Varma and IPL 2025. Mumbai Indians made the shocking call in their game against Lucknow Super Giants, inarguably overshadowing another show of personnel over strategy far too often seen in today’s game.

Retired outs in the IPL are fast becoming a not-so-trendy new black mark-added trend in waiting. With the search to extend the margins and find any edge possible, teams aren’t leaving any stone unturned, and “retired out” might just be the sharpest new tool in the league’s strategic playbook.

With five overs left, Atharva Taide was struggling. He gave a few chances, which Delhi did not take and with the required rate rising, Punjab had to make a tactical call. In the end, he walked off retired out with Punjab needing 86 in the last five, so that the Kings could get their hitters in. By doing so, Atharva Taide became the second batter to get retired out, after Ravichandran Ashwin last season.

Behind him, Jitesh Sharma, Sam Curran and Shah Rukh Khan were waiting so the move was justified, but was it too late and did it deprive Atharva Taide from converting his score into something big. He did bat for a considerable time, and despite making 50, he did not look too good with his control. He gave some catches which were not taken, indicating that there was a case for him being retired out earlier.

The retired-out decision though remains a tricky one. It is a decision that has had some attention on quite a few occasions, and Rahul Tewatia’s example in 2020 is a prime one. During that famous innings, he went through a big struggle, making 14 off 21, in a chase where the required rate was nudging three a ball. What followed after though was an amazing turnaround which made Rahul Tewatia the finisher.

With that innings in mind, there was a possibility of Punjab Kings and sides in general waiting before retiring a batter out. In hindsight though Atharva Taide’s decision could be considered a little late. A few balls after he walked out Jitesh Sharma was dismissed questioning the move, but four overs of carnage left spectators wondering what could have happened if the likes of Curran and Shah Rukh Khan came in a couple overs earlier.

Had Delhi taken their catches, the decision would have been a lot easier, allowing the hitters to come in at around the 12th over, changing the story a touch. The situation was similar, although it happened when Rajasthan batted first last season. Back then, Ravichandran Ashwin walked off in the 19th over, giving Riyan Parag 8 balls to try and push Rajasthan to a bigger score, knowing that the side has more potential in the batting line-up.

For Punjab, the move was a daring one as well, and it almost paid off. The success of the move will be noticed by other sides, and it may not be long before teams explore with the timing of such decisions going forward.