Virat Kohli kicked out Ambati Rayudu from India's 2019 World Cup Team? Robin Uthappa's allegations answered

Former India cricketer Ambati Rayudu has finally opened up on the allegations made by Robin Uthappa on the veteran India batter Virat Kohli. Rayudu defended Virat Kohli and even claimed that he was backed by the former India captaincy during his tenure.

The conversation was around Ambati Rayudu's exclusion from Team India's squad for the ODI World Cup 2019. Rayudu was in India's plans in the lead-up to the tournament as he was prepared for the No. 4 spot in the batting order.

However, he wasn't picked in the squad for the tournament. Even when the opener Shikhar Dhawan got injured, it was expected that Rayudu would be his replacement. However, the team management decided to pick the allrounder Vijay Shankar, leaving everyone perplexed about Rayudu's exclusion.

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Robin Uthappa attacks Virat Kohli

While speaking to Lallantop earlier this year, Robin Uthappa put serious allegations on Virat Kohli by claiming that the former India captain didn't let anyone into the team based on his own assessments.

Uthappa cited an example and claimed that Kohli didn't let the selectors pick Ambati Rayudu despite him being fully prepared to travel to England. He accused Kohli of shutting the door on Rayudu's dreams in an abrupt manner.

"If he (Virat Kohli) didn't like anyone, he didn't feel someone was good, then they were cut. (Ambati) Rayudu is the prime example. You feel bad. Everybody has preferences, I agree, but you cannot close the door on a player after taking him to the cusp," Uthappa said.

"He had World Cup clothes and a World Cup kit bag; everything was there at his home. A player would be thinking that he is going to the World Cup. But you shut the door on him. That wasn't fair according to me," he added.

Ambati Rayudu on Robin Uthappa's allegations on Virat Kohli

During a recent interview, Ambati Rayudu finally opened up on the topic and defended Virat Kohli. He even claims to be backed by the former India skipper during his leadership tenure and revealed that Kohli understands his struggles.

"What (Robin) Uthappa was trying to say is that (Virat) Kohli has strong likes and dislikes. But in my case, Kohli was the one who backed me. He liked me. When I was there at his captaincy, we played many games for India. He was the one who brought me into the team," Rayudu was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

"He understands the struggle because he as well is from a humble background and has played tremendous cricket. It is never easy to excel as a batter coming from Delhi. To be a world-beater, especially in white-ball cricket, it's not easy. So he has seen everything," he added.

Rayudu further elaborated his ouster by claiming that it was the team management's decision to drop him and thus, Kohli does not have to be blamed for that. He believes that Vijay Shankar was picked ahead of him on the basis of logic instead of any preferences.

"What Uthappa mentioned was that during his captaincy, he made mistakes. It's not about preferences, but it's about logic, which may have been the right thing to do.

I won't say Kohli or Ravi Shastri or MSK (Prasad) did that, it was a collective decision. They thought something else would be better for their team. But I don't think it was personal," he explained.

India reshuffles batting order

With Shikhar Dhawan out of the tournament after the match against Australia in the ODI World Cup 2019, KL Rahul, who was given the No. 4 earlier, was pushed to open. Allrounder Vijay Shankar was slotted in the middle order.

India even tried Rishabh Pant purely as a batter for the No. 4 slot but it didn't work out particularly well. The Men in Blue had a good tournament as they finished on top of the group stage. However, they lost the semi-final fixture against New Zealand and bowed out of the tournament.