MSK Prasad Reveals Why Mayank Agarwal Was Called Into World Squad Instead Of Ambati Rayudu

Not long before World Cup 2019, Ambati Rayudu was the designated number four batsman for team India in ODIs. The experienced batsman had the backing of captain Virat Kohli, who had called him number four batsman for World Cup.

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However, he was surprisingly ignored for a place in World Cup squad as Vijay Shankar pipped him. The latter is an all-rounder, the reason why he was preferred over Rayudu.

Despite being dropped, Rayudu still had a chance of making it the squad in case of an injury to any player. But he vented out his frustration on Twitter through his 3-d tweet.

Read More: MSK Prasad Reveals Why Vijay Shankar Isn’t A Part Of Indian Team For West Indies Series

That tweet is considered to be the reason why he wasn’t called into the World Cup squad even as India needed two replacement players during the tournament. At first, India called up Rishabh Pant to replace opener Shikhar Dhawan and later, opener Mayank Agarwal got a call-up to replace an injured Vijay Shankar.

While answering as to why Mayank was called in the squad depsite not being in standby list, MSK Prasad revealed that the team needed a backup opener due to an injury to KL Rahul during the tournament.

“When Shankar was injured, Rahul got injured attempting a catch. That time, we needed a backup opener. We looked at options & picked Agarwal,” he said after the team selection for the tour of West Indies.

After being ignored for the second time, Ambati Rayudu announced his retirement from the game.

Surprisingly, Mayank Agarwal has been dropped from the ODI squad. Although Shikhar Dhawan has made his comeback but he was expected to retain his place in the team. The right-hande batsman is though part of the Test squad for the series and will travel to Caribbean islands next month.

Also Read: Fans slam selectors for ignoring Shubman Gill

Apart from the comeback of Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey were others who made their comebacks in the ODI and T20I squad. The duo was not in the scheme of things for World Cup and now when the World Cup is over, both the players have made a comeback.

Dinesh Karthik has been dropped from the ODIs while MS Dhoni is on a break. There is no news regarding whether he is retiring soon or not. Jasprit Bumrah was also rested for ODI and T20I series. He will make his comeback for two Test matches.

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