‘A huge blunder’: Former India coach slams Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli for ignoring CSK star during 2019 WC

Ambati Rayudu’s IPL career came to a fairytale ending as he lifted his sixth title, third for Chennai Super Kings. Rayudu, a true workhorse in Indian cricket, is believed to have underachieved in his India career, despite playing 55 ODIs and six T20Is. He couldn’t cement a permanent place in the Playing XI, but his most famous run with Team India was during the build-up to the 2019 World Cup. Desperately searching for a No. 4 batter, Rayudu stepped up to the occasion.

Between September 2018 and March 2019, Rayudu became the answer to India’s No. 4 woes. After playing the IPL 2018, where he reached his T20 batting peak by slamming 602 runs, Rayudu played 21 ODIs in that six-month period, scoring 639 runs, including one century and four fifties.

While these were decent numbers, when the squad for the World Cup in England was announced, Rayudu’s name was surprisingly missing. They instead went ahead with KL Rahul as their No. 4 and called in all-rounder Vijay Shankar based on his performances in the IPL that year, an experiment whose layers unraveled further as the tournament went along.

Four years removed from that debatable call, as Rayudu called time on a glorious career, India bowling legend Anil Kumble feels it was a blunder to not have Rayudu take the flight to England. The former India coach reckons it was a huge miss on the then-captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri’s part to omit Rayudu at the last minute after preparing him for that particular role for six months.

“Rayudu should have played the 2019 World Cup. Oh yes, there’s no doubt about it. It was a huge blunder. You prepared him for that role for so long and his name just disappears from the squad. It was surprising nonetheless,” Kumble said on Jio Cinema when the IPL 2023 final was stalled due to rain after the Gujarat Titans innings.

The exclusion of Rayudu from the Indian cricket team had significant consequences. Rayudu expressed his dissatisfaction with the decision by posting a controversial tweet. He ordered a new set of 3D glasses to watch the World Cup, mocking the former chief selector MSK Prasad’s comment that Vijay Shankar was a “3D player.” Rayudu even announced his retirement during the World Cup, but later retracted it. Sadly, Rayudu never played for India again, and his international career ended in a mysterious manner.

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