‘Virat was the one who…’: Ambati Rayudu breaks silence on Robin Uthappa’s ‘if Kohli didn’t like anyone, they were cut’ accusation

The former Indian cricket player Ambati Rayudu has responded to Robin Uthappa’s recent, widely shared remarks accusing Virat Kohli of being the reason Rayudu was left out of the 2019 ODI World Cup team.  Rayudu made it clear that Kohli was the one who helped him get back into the Indian squad and supported him before the ICC event in England.

Rayudu, who was ranked as India’s fourth-best player in the lead-up to the 2019 World Cup, showed his value with crucial performances.  But in the end, he was left off of the World Cup squad because all-rounder Vijay Shankar was selected instead.  When Shikhar Dhawan and Shankar both had injuries during the competition, Rayudu was once more overlooked.

In a recent interview with Lallontop, Uthappa claimed that then-captain Kohli showed favoritism, implying that a player could be dropped if Kohli disapproved of them. Uthappa suggested that Rayudu fell victim to this alleged bias.

“If he (Virat Kohli) didn’t like anyone, he didn’t feel someone was good, then they were cut. (Ambati) Rayudu is the prime example. You feel bad. Everybody has preferences, I agree, but you cannot close the door on a player after taking him to the cusp. He had World Cup clothes and a World Cup kit bag; everything was there at his home. A player would be thinking that he is going to the World Cup. But you shut the door on him. That wasn’t fair according to me,” Uthappa told Lallantop.

In a recent interview that garnered significant attention on social media, Rayudu acknowledged that Kohli, despite his strong preferences, supported him for the crucial No. 4 position leading up to the 2019 World Cup.

“What Uthappa was trying to say is that Kohli has strong likes and dislikes. But in my case, Kohli was the one who backed me. He liked me. When I was there at his captaincy, we played many games for India. He was the one who brought me into the team. He understands the struggle because he as well is from a humble background and has played tremendous cricket. It is never easy to excel as a batter coming from Delhi. To be a world-beater, especially in white-ball cricket, it’s not easy. So he has seen everything,” he said.

“His leadership sometimes was found wanting, which everyone knows. What Uthappa mentioned was that during his captaincy, he made mistakes. It’s not about preferences, but it’s about logic, which may be at that point in time was not the right thing to do. I won’t say Kohli or Ravi Shastri or MSK (Prasad) did that, it was a collective decision. They thought something else would be better for their team. But I don’t think it was personal,” he added.

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