Not A U-turn, Says Ambati Rayudu On His Decision To Come Out Of Retirement
Updated - 01 Sep 2019, 11:29 AM
Ambati Rayudu is once again hogging the limelight and this time for his decision to reverse his decision on retirement. A couple of months ago, the former India batsman had sensationally announced his retirement from the game after the World Cup snub. Ambati Rayudu was a surprising omission from India’s squad for the tournament.
Things then went from bad to worse for him as he was not preferred to replace the injured players despite being in the stand-by list. Hurt with the snubs, Rayudu decided to bring down curtains on his career. However, he recently decided to come out of retirement which has widely been described as a U-turn.
However, the batsman has now hit back at those who are calling it a U-turn, saying that it was nothing of that sort. The right-hander said that he turned down “lucrative offers” to play in overseas leagues in order to play for Hyderabad again.
“I declined lucrative offers to play in T10 and T20 leagues in Canada and other countries. I have come out of retirement for well-wishers,” he told Telangana Today. “It is not a U-turn as for good reasons I believe I have good amount of cricket left in me. My top priority is now to get runs for Hyderabad.”
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He further spoke on his heartbreaking snub from the World Cup. Ambati Rayudu was looking destined for the World Cup after impressing at number four since being recalled last year. However, a poor home series against Australia made the team-management pick Vijay Shankar ahead of him. Speaking on the snub, Rayudu said that being ignored for the World Cup was “shocking”.
“I had worked very hard to be ready for the World Cup. I quit red-ball cricket for the World Cup. I was extremely fit and doing the role, which the team asked me to do at No. 4 and suddenly when you are not in the team, it was shocking. There was no communication from the team members also,” he said.
Well, with the likes of Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer and Vijay Shankar now in contention, Rayudu faces an upheaval task as far as returning to the national team is concerned. All he can do for the time being is to impress for Hyderabad and hope for the best.
