Birthday special: Ambati Rayudu and his career highlights since 2018
Ambati Rayudu’s career is probably the most dramatic one would have witnessed. He was compared with Sachin Tendulkar when in teens before he joined the rebel ICL. Rayudu was always among controversies and began to toil in domestic cricket after he pulled out of ICL in 2010. He seldom appeared in the Indian team from 2013 and became a top contender to feature in the 2019 World Cup but was ousted at the last moment.
Here we look at the timeline of Ambati Rayudu’s career since the start of 2018:
January 2018:
Rayudu got banned for two matches by BCCI after his on-field controversy during Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 match against Karnataka while leading Hyderabad team.
February-March 2018:
Rayudu was bought by Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2018 auction. At the same time, Rayudu led the Hyderabad team to the Vijay Hazare Trophy semi-final. He scored 216 runs with two fifties across five innings in that tournament at an average of 43.20.
April-May 2018:
Ambati Rayudu was the first player to join the CSK camp for the IPL 2018 where he got a chance to open the batting. He ended up as the tournament’s 4th highest run-getter with 602 runs at an average of 43 and a strike rate nearly 150. Rayudu struck three fifties and also his maiden Twenty20 century during the tournament.
May 2018:
Rayudu got a call-up in the Indian ODI squad for the first time in nearly two years. He was picked for the 3-match ODI series in England where he was expected to bat at No.4 straight-away.
June 2018:
It was announced that Suresh Raina will replace Rayudu for the England ODI series. Rayudu failed the yo-yo Test ahead of the England tour as BCCI made the yo-yo Test compulsory to be part of any Indian squad.
August 2018:
Rayudu cleared the yo-yo Test ahead of the selection for Asia Cup to be held in UAE. He scored 187 runs across four innings in the ‘A’ team quadrangular tournament held in Bangalore with help of two fifties.
September 2018:
Rayudu was named in the India squad for the Asia Cup. He batted at No.3 with Virat Kohli taking rest from this tournament. He scored 175 runs across six innings at an average of 43.75 in that tournament with two fifties.
October 2018:
In the home ODI series against Windies, Rayudu aggregated 217 runs at an average of 72.33 across four innings with help of a century and a fifty.
After the century in Mumbai, Virat Kohli praised Rayudu’s batting saying “Happy that someone (Rayudu) with intelligence is batting at number four. We need to back him till the 2019 World Cup.”
November 2018:
Rayudu announced his retirement from first-class cricket to focus on white-ball career days before he was set to lead Hyderabad in Ranji Trophy.
January-February 2019:
Rayudu struggled to get going against Australia in the 3-match ODI series where he scored 0 and 24 in the first two matches before getting dropped due to his performance against pacers.
Rayudu got back into the playing XI in the 5-match ODI series against New Zealand where he finished as top scorer with 190 runs across five innings at an average of 63.33. His gusty 90-run knock in the 5th ODI helped him to earn the player of the match award.
After Rayudu finished off the chase in 3rd ODI, Virat Kohli said “When he (Rayudu) starts playing like that, you start feeling more confident.”
March 2019:
Rayudu’s performances weren’t great in the home ODI series against Australia as he scored 13, 18 and 2 in the first three matches of the series before getting dropped.
April 2019:
Until the day of CWC squad selection, Rayudu scored only 138 runs from 8 innings in the IPL. It was announced he failed to make a cut to India’s World Cup squad. Chief Selector MSK Prasad said that they preferred Vijay Shankar ahead of Rayudu as the former adds a bit more dimensions to that role and with his fielding and bowling abilities.
A day after his exclusion, Ambati Rayudu came up with a sarcastic tweet stating that he will watch the World Cup with 3d glasses.
July 2019:
Rayudu announced retirement from all formats of cricket on July 2nd after Rishabh Pant and Mayank Agarwal got picked in the place of injured Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay Shankar in the CWC 2019.
August 2019:
On 29th August, Rayudu stated that he is willing to play professional cricket again. He withdrew his retirement and made himself available for Hyderabad team selection.
September 2019:
On September 28, Rayudu came back to professional cricket by leading the Hyderabad team in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the subsequent Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament.
September 2020:
In the first match of IPL 2020, Rayudu smashed 71 against Mumbai Indians and won the player of the match award.
