Former Indian player Ambati Rayudu walked into the sunset after the curtains drew to the Indian Premier League 2023. Rayudu, who played a cameo in Chennai Super Kings' stunning 5-wicket win over Gujarat Titans in the final, has hung his boots from all forms of Indian Cricket. Once considered a good option for India's No.4 woes in the ODI side, Rayudu was omitted from the Indian squad for the 2019 World Cup. Meanwhile, Anil Kumble has made a big statement on the exclusion.
Rayudu made a comeback to the Indian ODI squad after a period of over two years. He had a fabulous IPL 2018 for CSK where he scored 602 runs for them. He was recalled to the Indian side in September 2018 and was played at the No.4 place. Notably, Rayudu had decent numbers at the spot after the IPL as he scored 639 runs, including a ton and four fifties for India. But his name went missing from the Indian squad for the World Cup. Virat Kohli's side went with KL Rahul for the No.4 spot and Vijay Shankar being an all-rounder.
Meanwhile, Kumble has now taken a dig at Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri over the treatment of Rayudu. "Rayudu should have played the World Cup in 2019. Oh yes, there's no doubt in it. It was a huge blunder. You prepared him for that role for a long time and his name just disappears from the squad. It was surprising nonetheless," Kumble said on Jio Cinema during the rain break in the CSK vs GT final.
Notably, Rayudu's exclusion did not go well with him as he posted a cryptic post on social media. Taking a dig at former chief selector MSK Prasad's comments of 'Vijay Shankar is a 3D player', Rayudu wrote on his Twitter, "Just ordered a new set of 3D glasses to watch the World Cup."
