Ambati Rayudu Announces Retirement: After being overlooked twice during World Cup 2019, India’s middle-order batsman Ambati Rayudu has decided to take retirement from all forms of cricket on Wednesday.
Ambati Rayudu was included in the Stand-by list for the World Cup, however, despite players like Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay Shankar getting injured, Ambati Rayudu failed to book a flight to England as team management called Rishabh Pant and Mayank Agarwal as replacements.
“I also would like to thank the two IPL franchises MI and CSK for their support. It has been an honour and privilege to have represented our country. I would like to thank the captains I have played under, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and especially Virat Kohli who always had shown great belief in me throughout my career with the Indian team.” he added.
“It has been a wonderful journey of playing the sport and learning from every up and down it brought up on for the last 25 years at various different levels. Finally, I would like to thank my family and all the wellwishers who have been with me throughout this wonderful journey.” the 32-year-old batsman concluded.
After showcasing consistent performances in the series against West Indies and New Zealand, Ambati Rayudu was assured of the number four position in the World Cup. However, the 33-year old batsman found his name missing in the World Cup squad which was announced on 15th April. India’s all-rounder Vijay Shankar was preferred ahead of him, owing to his three-dimensional skills.
Ambati Rayudu Announces Retirement: In the ongoing World Cup 2019, Vijay Shankar picked a toe injury during a net session before the match against Afghanistan and was even ruled out of the tournament. But, the management decided to go for Rishabh Pant as his replacement which perhaps has made Rayudu take up the call.
Rayudu also took retirement from first-class cricket last year, only to focus on One-Day Internationals and T20s. Ambati Rayudu enjoyed an illustrious 17 year-long first-class career, scoring 6151 runs from 97 matches.
“This is to inform that Ambati Rayudu, Hyderabad captain and member of the India ODI team, has decided to retire from the longer version of the game including Ranji Trophy (multi-day) to focus on limited overs cricket and T20 cricket,” Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) had stated.
Ambati Rayudu has played 50 One-Day Internationals for India and has scored 1694 at an average of 47.05. He has three centuries and ten fifties to his name in One-Day cricket. Rayudu has also played five T20s for India. He scored 42 runs at an average of 10.50.
