Veteran India and Chennai Super Kings batter Ambati Rayudu has announced retirement from all formats an hour before Indian Premier League 2023 final between CSK and defending champions Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
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Rayudu, 37, had already hinted at making such a move earlier this month. A final confirmation means that he will be playing the last match of a representative career spanning over a couple of decades tonight. All in all, Rayudu will have played a grand total of 566 matches across formats at the end of his career.
Rayudu, who played the last of his 64 white-ball matches for India during a home series against Australia more than four years ago, hasn’t been in contention for the national team since then. Although he never played first-class cricket after 2017, he had been representing Baroda (having also played for Andhra and Hyderabad during the last leg of his career) in domestic cricket until the recently concluded Indian domestic season.
Ambati Rayudu Announces IPL Retirement On Twitter
As has become a custom nowadays, Rayudu took to social media platform Twitter to make an official announcement. Hoping for Super Kings to lift the IPL trophy for the sixth time on Sunday, Rayudu smoothly transitioned into thanking everyone for a fulfilling career.
“It’s been quite a journey.I have decided that tonight’s final is going to be my last game in the Ipl.i truly hav enjoyed playing this great tournament.Thank u all. No u turn,” Rayudu tweeted.
2 great teams mi nd csk,204 matches,14 seasons,11 playoffs,8 finals,5 trophies.hopefully 6th tonight. It’s been quite a journey.I have decided that tonight’s final is going to be my last game in the Ipl.i truly hav enjoyed playing this great tournament.Thank u all. No u turn 😂🙏
— ATR (@RayuduAmbati) May 28, 2023
Readers must note that this isn’t the first time when Rayudu has made such an announcement. Ignored not once but thrice by the national selectors before and during ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, the right-handed batter had decided to bid adieu to all formats of the game.
However, not even a couple of months had passed when a u-turn had witnessed Rayudu expressing interest in playing for Chennai during IPL 2020. It is due to the same reason why Rayudu sarcastically wrote “No u turn” in his retirement tweet today.
Ambati Rayudu IPL Stats
With CSK being only his second IPL franchise other than Mumbai Indians, Rayudu is currently in the middle of his 14th IPL season. 12th highest run-scorer in the history of the tournament, Rayudu has amassed 4,329 runs at an average and strike rate of 28.29 and 127.29 respectively which includes a century and 22 half-centuries across 186 innings.
