Robin Uthappa blames Virat Kohli for Amabati Rayudu's exclusion from 2019 World Cup squad

Former India cricketer Robin Uthappa blamed batting great and former India captain Virat Kohli for Ambati Rayudu's exclusion from the 2019 ODI World Cup squad despite playing 10 matches for the country leading to the tournament. The comments came when the inaugural T20 World Cup winning player was speaking to Lallontop.

Rayudu was ignored even after Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay Shankar were injured mid-way through the tournament. Uthappa said Kohli, who was the captain of the Indian team at the time, did not like a player, he would be dropped from the team and same happened with Rayudu.



“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.

Disappointed with the snub, Rayudu announced retirement from international cricket and posted a controversial ‘3D’ tweet blaming former chief selector MSK Prasad for his snub. However, Prasad stated that the committee consisted of other selectors too, and even the captain had a role in decisions.

The comments come just days after Uthappa blamed Kohli for Yuvraj Singh's exclusion from the squad post his cancer recovery.

Rayudu’s record for India

Rayudu played a total of 55 ODIs scoring 1,694 runs in the format. He also played six T20Is and managed 42 runs. He was part of India’s ODI World Cup squad in 2015 but did not get a chance to play a single match. During his six-year-long ODI career for India, Rayudu helped India win the 2018 edition of the Asia Cup, which was played in the United Arab Emirates.