‘The rules permit you to do it…there is no cheating’: Ravichandran Ashwin weighs in on Krunal Pandya’s retired hurt call

The Lucknow Super Giants-Mumbai Indians game in 2023 Indian Premier League saw Lucknow score 177/3 in their 20 overs after being put in to bat first Rohit Sharma.
The innings saw Marcus Stoinis smack 89 runs off 47 deliveries. The second highest scorer for the hosts was the stand-in skipper Krunal Pandya, who amassed 49 runs off 42 balls. Pandya however, would feature in a decision that would be one of the talking points of the match at Ekana International Stadium.
Pandya, who had faced seven overs of deliveries during the innings but was only batting at a strike rate of 116.67 as opposed to Stoinis batting at 189.36, would walk off the field following the 16th over, deemed retired hurt. This would bring Nicholas Pooran in the middle during the death overs phase and even though he could only score eight runs from as many deliveries, the decision would get cricket social media talking if this was a tactical call rather than a forced decision from Lucknow.

The rules permit you to do it! There is no cheating
— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) May 16, 2023
Rajasthan Royals off-spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin would tweet, “Retired out?” alongside the hashtag of the southpaw. A fan would react stating utterly cheating under the tweet, to which Ashwin would respond, “The rules permit you to do it! There is no cheating.”
The rule of a batter retiring is stated under the MCC book of laws section 25.4.
Per 25.4.2, “If a batter retires because of illness, injury or any other unavoidable cause, that batter is entitled to resume his/her innings. If for any reason this does not happen, that batter is to be recorded as ‘Retired – not out’.”

The next clause explains the aforementioned situation further, “If a batter retires for any reason other than as in 25.4.2, the innings of that batter may be resumed only with the consent of the opposing captain. If for any reason his/her innings is not resumed, that batter is to be recorded as ‘Retired – out’.”