Venugopal Rao retires: Veteran batsman bring curtains down on his career, ACA thanks him

Former India batsman and Andhra Pradesh skipper Venugopal Rao on Tuesday announced retirement from all forms of the game.

"Y. Venugopala Rao, former captain of Andhra Ranji team and India international, who has represented India in 16 ODIs, and 65 IPL matches announced his retirement from all the forms of cricket," the Andhra Cricket Association said in a statement.

Venugopal Rao's career for the Men in Blue

The 37-year-old from Visakhapatnam could amass only 218 runs with a lone fifty to his name in the 11 innings he played for India after making his debut against Sri Lanka at Dambulla on July 30, 2005. 

He played his last ODI against West Indies at Basseterre on May 23, 2006. Rao played 121 first-class matches scoring 7,081 runs with 17 hundreds and 30 fifties to his credit. From 2008-2014 he played for Deccan Chargers and Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL.

ACA thanks Venugopal Rao

The Andhra Cricket Association office-bearers recollected his valuable contribution to the game.

"The President, Hon. Gen. Secretary and the members of the Andhra Cricket Association wish him all the best of luck for his future career and recollect his valuable contribution made by him for Andhra Cricket Association," it added. 

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Recollecting Rayudu's retirement 

Earlier this year, veteran Indian batsman Ambati Rayudu had 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. 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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(With inputs from PTI)