Ambati Rayudu’s selection in Indian Test squad for South Africa tour completes remarkable cricketing revival

More than a decade ago, Ambati Rayudu was known as the next big thing in Indian cricket. However for a long time, the glowing lights in his career seemed to have switched off. Just when critics wrote him off, like a phoenix he has risen from the ashes. Bharath Ramaraj looks back at the career of a cricketer who went through his fair share of ups and downs, before wading his way through swamps and marshes to make it into the Indian Test squad to play South Africa in their den.

Ambati Rayudu was selected in the Indian Test squad for the tour of South Africa © AFP

More than a decade ago, Ambati Rayudu was known as the next big thing in Indian cricket. However for a long time, the glowing lights in his career seemed to have switched off. Just when critics wrote him off, like a phoenix he has risen from the ashes. Bharath Ramaraj looks back at the career of a cricketer who went through his fair share of ups and downs, before wading his way through swamps and marshes to make it into the Indian Test squad to play South Africa in their den.
 

When the Indian senior team in 2002, with its incandescent performances in England, was making the nation proud, a young bunch of Under-19 cricketers, too, were making waves and touching rarefied zones in the Old Blighty. In the final match of the India Under-19 vs England Under-19 one-day series played at the scenic Taunton cricket ground in August 2002, the teenaged 17-year-old Ambati Rayudu must have felt a game of cricket was like a fabled fairy-tale, when he took India to what seemed like an improbable target with a turbo-charged knock of 177 not out.
 
Days have turned into months and months into 11 years with the once 17-year-old prodigy — Ambati Rayudu — now a 28-year-old seasoned glittering-star in the Indian domestic circuit. Despite succeeding in the domestic arena, every professional cricketer would crave to don the national cap in Test and one-day cricket. After a long wait, the crowning glory of his career finally might have arrived for the twinkling star of domestic cricket, as he got picked in the Indian squad to play in a two-match Test series against South Africa in the Rainbow Nation. As it is just a two-match series, the chances of Rayudu donning the Indian cap in whites is still slim. However, him being picked in the Indian Test squad itself must have been a reality-altering experience for the Rayudu family.
 
The Guntur born Rayudu made his First-Class debut at the age of just 16 for Hyderabad. But things didn’t go according to plan for the dashing batsman with burgeoning potential. In the 2004-05 First-Class season, he averaged only 11.92 for Hyderabad. To make it worse for him, he had his fair share of disciplinary issues off the field too. First and foremost, he made the headlines for having a tiff with Hyderabad’s then coach Rajesh Yadav. Curiously, the season before him flopping miserably for Hyderabad, he was in sparkling form for the India A team in Kenya when he ended the series with an awe-inspiring average of 152. Suddenly though in 2004, the glowing lights in his career seemed to have switched off and he was wandering in the lonely world of wilderness.
 
One of the reasons many believe that led to Rayudu’s poor form in 2004, was because Hyderabad in those days, used to play home games on a treacherous wicket. Even visiting batsmen with truckload of runs behind them tended to struggle at the Gymkhana ground. In a crystal clear manner it affected his technique. There is always a thinking that good batting tracks with even bounce produces fine batsmen.
 
Rayudu tried his luck by moving over to the Andhra Pradesh Ranji Trophy team, but even there he struggled to pen indelible knocks that would have made the national selectors sit up and take notice of his resplendent performances.
 
Even after returning back to the Hyderabad set-up, he was haunted by off-field issues. In fact, he was involved in an altercation with his own teammate Arjun Yadav. It went to the extent of Rayudu being attacked with stumps by Arjun.
 
Playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Mumbai Indians, opened the floodgates for Rayudu to come out of his wallow of mediocrity, as he rubbed shoulders with some of the best in the business. Lest we forget that since his comeback, he has been ultra-consistent in the domestic circuit for his new team Baroda too. Especially in the 2012-13 Indian domestic season, he played with marvellous fluency to notch up 873 runs at a highly impressive average of 72.75. Cricket enthusiasts still remember his sublime innings of 131 against Delhi in the 2012-13 Ranji Trophy season. Actually, Rayudu transports cricket fans to the bygone days of the 1980s and 1990s with a touch of Hyderabadi style of batsmanship.
 
It also has to be said that just when he was flailing hopelessly in the world of wilderness, India’s legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar had a one-to-one talk with him that revivified the sagging spirits of the talented batsman.
 
Vijay Paul, who played for Hyderabad during 1970s and 1980s told Indian express, “Sachin sought him out and his advice was simple ‘You have all the shots in the book. There is no reason for you to be in a hurry to showcase them all. Take some time at the crease and the bowlers will be at your mercy’. When someone as big as Sachin tells you that, you listen.”
 
It seems to have worked wonders for him, as from rocky-terrains of issues with umpires, coaches and his teammates, he touched the sunny uplands of the world of cricket. Recently, in the One-Day International (ODI) series played against minnows Zimbabwe, he made an instant impact in his debut match by playing a well-measured knock of 63 to take India to a fine win.
 
As Rayudu waits for his cherished dream of donning the Indian Test cap, one can only marvel the dogged determination he has shown to make his way to the top echelons of the game.
 
(Bharath Ramaraj, an MBA in marketing, eats, drinks and sleeps cricket. He has played at school and college-level, and now channelises his passion for the game by writing about it)

About the Author

• 
•