Not MSK Prasad! Virat Kohli blocked Ambati Rayudu’s World Cup selection, reveals Robin Uthappa
Former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa seems to be on a mission to tarnish Virat Kohli’s image and everything he has done as Indian cricket captain with his shocking statements. Recently, Uthappa slammed Kohli for not supporting Yuvraj Singh, accusing him of dropping the legendary all-rounder from the Indian cricket team.
Now the former Indian batsman has once again come down hard on Kohli’s leadership style. In a brave statement, Robin Uthappa claimed that former India captain Virat Kohli’s personal preferences often influenced team decisions and left many players heartbroken, such as Yuvraj Singh and Ambati Rayudu.
Robin Uthappa slams Virat Kohli for unfairly dropping Ambati Rayudu from the 2019 World Cup squad.
Uthappa recently shed light on one of the most controversial omissions of Ambati Rayudu, who was surprisingly left out of the Indian cricket team for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. He claimed that Virat Kohli had a major role behind Rayudu’s snub for the ODI World Cup 2019, thanks to his personal preferences.
Uthappa revealed that Ambati Rayudu has already received his ODI World Cup gear and is preparing for the tournament, but Virat Kohli’s likes and dislikes approach has made the selectors shut the door on his dreams.
At the last moment, Rayudu was not selected for the 2019 World Cup and was also not invited when Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay Shankar got injured during the tournament.
Robin Uthappa felt that the Indian cricket team’s decision not to pick Rayudu despite sending his kit was unfair and detrimental to Rayudu. He also remarked that the move was unfair, as it crushed Rayudu’s dreams and hurt the batsman.
If Virat Kohli didn’t like anyone, they were cut: Robin Uthappa
However, Uthappa admitted that every leader has his own preferences but stressed that it is very important to maintain a balance between personal bias or personal opinion and what is best for the team. He was very critical about the impact of Kohli’s captaincy on the players’ careers.
Robin Uthappa said at Lallantop: “If he (Virat Kohli) didn’t like anybody, didn’t feel somebody was good, then they dropped him. (Ambati) Rayudu is a prime example. You feel bad. Everyone has preferences, I agree, but you can’t shut the door on a player once you’ve brought them to the top. He had World Cup clothes, a bag of World Cup gear; everything was there in his house. The player would think he was going to the World Cup. But you closed the door on him. That was not fair in my opinion.”
Ambati Rayudu has blamed MSK Prasad for his disdain at the 2019 World Cup
Notably, Ambati Rayudu revealed that he was not on good terms with former Indian chief selector MSK Prasad, which affected his career after the World Cup 2019 controversy. Later, Prasad refused to take the blame for Rayudu’s relegation saying that the selection committee was making decisions together, including the captain, not just him.
Rayudu retired from all forms of the game in May 2023 after representing India in just 61 international matches. However, the former right-handed batsman had an illustrious IPL career, winning six titles with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI).
The Andhra Pradesh cricketer played 204 IPL matches and ended his career with 4348 runs with a highest score of an unbeaten 100 at an average of 28 and a strike rate of 127.54.
