Middle-order batsman Ambati Rayudu, who was ignored by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for 15-man World Cup squad, on Wednesday, announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.
Rayudu has informed the BCCI about his decision. While the selectors picked Vijay Shankar in place of Rayudu, the latter wasn’t even considered for a place in the World Cup squad even after Shikhar Dhawan and Shankar were ruled out of the tournament with injuries. The selectors instead went for Rishabh Pant and Mayank Agarwal as the respective replacements.
Rayudu played 55 ODIs for India, scoring 1694 runs at an average of 47.05.
He last donned the blue jersey during the home series against Australia in March where he scored 33 runs in 3 ODI innings. He played the last IPL for the Chennai Super Kings, scoring 282 runs in 17 innings.
Declared the preferred No. 4 batsman by captain Virat Kohli not many months ago, Rayudu was ignored for the mega ICC event.
Chairman of selectors MSK Prasad had justified the move by saying that Shankar had “three-dimensional skills”. Rayudu then took a dig at that statement with a cheeky social media post.
“Just Ordered a new set of 3d glasses to watch the world cup,” he had tweeted at that time.
Just Ordered a new set of 3d glasses to watch the world cup 😉😋..
— ATR (@RayuduAmbati) April 16, 2019
