Ambati Rayudu Opens Up On Chances Of Playing IPL 2020

Former India batsman Ambati Rayudu seems to have changed his mind as far as his retirement is concerned. The right-hander had sensationally announced his retirement from “all forms and levels” of cricket after the World Cup snub. Despite looking set to be India’s number four at the World Cup, he could not make it to the final squad.

And although Rayudu was named among five standbys for the World Cup, he was ignored twice when the selectors and the Indian team management opted for Rishabh Pant and Mayank Agarwal as replacements for the injured pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay Shankar respectively.

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Well, a couple of months after announcing his retirement from all forms of the game, Rayudu has confirmed he would play in the Indian Premier League. Not only that, Rayudu also said he is open to playing for India again. Rayudu has been plying his trade for Chennai Super Kings since the last two seasons.

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In 2018, he was the top-scorer for the Chennai Super Kings. Rayudu scored over 600 runs as the Super Kings went all the way to win the title on their return to the league after serving a two-year suspension. He, however, had a poor IPL this year as he managed just 282 runs in 17 innings which did hamper his World Cup hopes to a certain extent.

“I am very happy that CSK has always been very supportive. I would be really happy to prepare well for the IPL and represent CSK. Definitely, I would be playing the IPL,” Ambati Rayudu told Sportstar.

He further said that he would start preparing for his return to action soon.

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“I haven’t thought much but I would prepare well to come back to white-ball cricket as soon as possible. I love the game, obviously. See ambition and targets are one thing but it still is the game I love. It is about playing cricket,” he said.

“So, I thought why not take it forward? Nothing like a target or anything. But my first priority would be to get fully fit. I have not played cricket for a while now and it would take me maybe a month and a half to get fully fit,” he added.

Rayudu, who made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in 2013, featured in 55 ODIs, scoring 1694 runs at an average of 47.05.