Ambati Rayudu Retires: Here Is What Experts Of The Game Have To Say About It

Veteran Indian batsman Ambati Rayudu has decided to move on as he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. The middle-order batsman has represented India in 55 One Day Internationals and six T20Is. The 33-year-old was overlooked by the selectors when Team India's 15-member World Cup squad was announced earlier this year. He was once again overlooked when all-rounder Vijay Shankar was ruled out of the tournament due to a toe injury and Mayank Agarwal was named as a replacement. It seemed that the Andhra batsman was assured of a World Cup berth during his impressive run in 2018 and it appeared that India's middle-order woes have been addressed.

However, his 2019 began on a miserable note as he could manage only 24 runs in the two matches he played. Rayudu made up for it to some extent in the following series against New Zealand where he amassed 190 runs in five ODI's. He scored a match-winning 90 in the final ODI after India were reduced to 18/4 as they ended up getting to 252. However, a forgettable home series against Australia meant that the veteran batsman was overlooked for the quadrennial event.

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Rayudu’s retirement announcement garnered mixed reactions but what most reaction echoed was that Rayudu has been wronged and that he does have a lot of cricket left in him and netizens believe that he is the answer to India’s number four problem. 

Here is what some retired cricketers and cricket experts reacted on Rayudu’s unexpected retirement:

Former Indian pacer RP Singh spoke about their time in the Under-19s, during which time Rayudu had played with and also captained a number of players who are still playing today:

Virender Sehwag showed empathy: 

 Harsha Bhogle expressed the hope that Rayudu would continue to play in domestic cricket and the IPL:

 Commentator Mikkhail Vaswani said that the matter highlighted the importance of nurturing and handling of talents and behaviours:

Let's hope the fans will get to see more of Rayudu on the field in some way or the other. 

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