Published: Apr 16, 2019, 05:05 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 16, 2019, 05:05 PM (IST)
A day after he was dropped from India’s 15-man squad for the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, Ambati Rayudu has taken to Twitter to drop a hint of how he is feeling.
On Monday, Rayudu’s name was missing from India’s ODI squad for the World Cup in England this summer, with the BCCI chairman of selectors MSK Prasad telling reporters that the middle-order batsman had lost out to Vijay Shankar.
In Prasad’s estimation, the younger Shankar won favour over Rayudu because of his “three dimensional” skills.
“After the Champions Trophy (2017), we tried quite a few people in that position. We did give a few more chances to Rayudu,” said Prasad. “Vijay Shankar is three dimensional. We are looking at him at No 4 to begin with. We also have Dinesh Karthik and Kedar Jadhav. It’s not that anything that went against [Rayudu], it’s that a few things went for [Shankar].”
On Tuesday, Rayudu tweeted, in a not-so-subtle dig at Prasad, that he had “just ordered a new set of 3d glasses to watch the World Cup”.
Just Ordered a new set of 3d glasses to watch the world cup ..
— Ambati Rayudu (@RayuduAmbati) April 16, 2019
Over the past six months Rayudu was identified by India’s captain, vice-captain and coach as the man to bat at No 4 at the World Cup. Virat Kohli all but confirmed Rayudu as India’s World Cup No 4 last year after Rohit Sharma endorsed the batsman’s skills at the Asia Cup.
In the ODI tours in Australia and New Zealand earlier this year, Rayudu averaged 42.80 from seven games. Then when Australia toured India in March, he struggled with scores of 13, 18 and 2. The management then dropped him from the XI for the fourth and fifth ODIs.
In the ongoing IPL, Rayudu has scores of 28, 5, 1, 0, 21*, 21, 57 and 5.
