Ambati Rayudu’s journey in Indian Cricket finally came to an end yesterday when he shocked the cricketing fraternity by announcing his retirement from all forms of cricket. There must be many reasons behind his decision but, in my opinion, the treatment by the Indian team management has to be one of them.
Rayudu was India’s regular No.4 for the past year and a half. He has performed well in all the opportunities given to him by scoring 1694 runs in 55 ODIs with an impressive average of 47. But after a disappointing series against Australia followed by a more disappointing IPL, he was suddenly dropped from the national team ahead for the World Cup in favour of Vijay Shankar (and his ‘3 Dimensional Ability’).
In Cricketing language, we can say team management bowled everyone by the ‘doosra’ when they were ready for the regular one.
After Shikhar Dhawan’s injury, everyone was expecting a call for Ambati Rayudu because he was one of the standby players (as per an explanation by the management after his exclusion from the squad). KL Rahul was already in the squad as a backup opener so eventually, the team wanted a middle-order batsman at No.4 or No.5 but Rishabh Pant was given a chance ahead of Rayudu despite his lack of experience in ODI cricket (just 5 ODIs).
When Vijay Shankar was ruled out of the World Cup due to a toe injury, it was expected that Rayudu would finally get a call but again, the team management caught us off guard by announcing Mayank Agarwal as his replacement. It was a surprising decision to replace the middle-order batsman by an opening batsman who has never played an ODI for India before. It must have been very frustrating for Rayudu. It was the final nail in the coffin for Tayudu’s dream of playing the World Cup.
Twitterati even speculated that infamous “3D tweet” by Amabati Rayudu cost him a place in the World Cup.
I think the frustration and pain of being overlooked for the second time got the better of him. So he decided to call it day.
I am sure Ambati Rayudu will go on as a talented prodigy who couldn’t justify his talent because of a lack of proper nurturing and treatment.
After everything is said and done, it is worth mentioning how the decisions and the treatment by team management can make or break the career of talented individuals.