Ayushi Soni becomes first player to be retired out in WPL

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

Soni came in to bat at No. 6 and struggled to get going. She was on 11 off 14 and hadn't hit a single boundary when Giants retired her out at the end of the 16th over and the score reading 135.

This was only the second instance of a player being retired out in a women's franchise T20 league, with the previous instance of Kathryn Bryce being retired out for Manchester Originals against Northern Superchargers in the 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 has been ruled out for a "short period" after sustaining a minor injury while fielding during their win over Delhi Capitals.

Bharti Fulmali, who walked in 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 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 team's 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," he said.

Klinger complimented Soni's role in the partnership with Wareham, but reiterated why they had to take the call to retire her out.

"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," he said. "Thought she did a good job in her first game, going I think at about a run on 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 also maintained that the incident played no role in Soni later dropping Harmanpreet Kaur twice as MI chased down the target in the final over.

Thirteen days into the calendar year, there have already been six retired outs in men's T20s, including two in the same innings in the Super Smash. 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.