Ayushi Soni becomes first player to be retired out in the WPL

Ayushi Soni became the first player to be retired out in a WPL match during Gujarat Giants'(GG) innings against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the DY Patil Stadium on Tuesday.

Soni went out to bat at No. 6 and struggled to get going. She was on 11 off 14 balls and hadn't hit a single boundary when Giants retired her out at the end of the 16th over with the scoreboard reading 136 for 5.

This was only the second instance of a player being retired out in a women's franchise T20 cricket, with the previous instance that of Kathryn Bryce being retired out for Manchester Originals against Northern Superchargers in the Women's Hundred in 2024.

Soni was making her WPL debut and was drafted into GG's XI in place of Anushka Sharma, who had played in their first two matches of the season. Anushka was ruled out for a "short period" after sustaining a minor injury while fielding during their win over Delhi Capitals (DC).

Bharti Fulmali, who walked out after Soni was retired out, was given out lbw on the first two balls she faced, only to be saved by successful reviews. She then went on to smash an unbeaten 36 off 15 with three fours and three sixes as her 56-run stand with Georgia Wareham powered GG to 192 for 5.

"So we spoke to Ayushi and Georgia about that [in the] 13-over timeout, and spoke to Ayushi about really lifting her rate once we get to the 15th over, because of what we have left in the shed, knowing that Bharti is a really strong hitter, and probably just felt after that 16th over, that was the time to inject Bharti with four overs to go, and we knew we had some batters left," GG head coach Michael Klinger said at the post-match press conference, explaining the decision.

"In the end, the decision came… actually myself, I was just chatting with our batting coach and then Ashleigh Gardner came over and we discussed it and I made the call. In hindsight, it got us probably 20 more runs, so there's no doubt the call was the right one," Klinger said. "It's tough on the individual, we've spoken to Ayushi and we continue to speak to her, keep the confidence in her, but sometimes you've got to make those calls, there's probably a difference between us making 190-odd to 170-odd."

GG's 192, however, proved inadequate, with MI crossing the line with four balls in hand.

"I spoke to Ayushi as soon as she came off, and just said that we felt that Bharti was the best option going into the last four overs," Klinger said. "Thought she [Soni] did a good job in her first game, going I think at about a-run-a-ball to help build that phase with Georgia, and giving her some strike and she got some boundaries there, so she did a good job.

"We just felt that we needed probably 180-190 to maximise batting first and we felt that Bharti was the best option for that. Now if one of those lbws were out it could have backfired, but it was still a positive decision and looking back on it, that was the right one to go."

Klinger maintained that the incident played no role in Soni later dropping Harmanpreet Kaur twice as MI chased down the target.

Thirteen days into the calendar year, there have already been six retired outs in men's T20s, including two in the same innings in a Super Smash game. One of the big ones recently was Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan being retired out by Melbourne Renegades against Sydney Thunder in the BBL on Monday.