Ambati Rayudu played 55 ODIs and 6 T20Is for India.
Ambati Rayudu had spent the better part of 2018 preparing for the role of no.4 batter in the Indian team in the leadup to the 2019 World Cup. He was seen as the answer to the conundrum that the Indian team management was facing after Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina.
Virat Kohli, the team's then-captain, backed Ambati Rayudu for a crucial position. Unfortunately, Rayudu was left out of the India squad for the 2019 World Cup in favor of Vijay Shankar, dubbed the "3-Dimensional Player," by the selectors.
Now MSK Prasad, who was the then BCCI chief selector, has reacted to Rayudu’s statements and said that one single person can't get his choice approved when there are other selectors and captain and coach present in the section meetings.
“All of us know that the selection committee has got five selectors and the captain sitting in the selection committee. Will any single person’s decision be taken or is it a consensus or is it an entire collective decision that would be taken? If an individual can take a decision, then you don’t require five selectors.
So, any decision that is taken only happens with the consensus of the entire selection committee. So, it is a collective decision. Not an individual decision. I may propose something but somebody else has to accept it. No individual decision will prevail in a committee,” Prasad said in an interview with timesnownews.com.
Rayudu had also revealed that he didn’t agree with some of the methods MSK Prasad employed as the captain of the Andhra Ranji team in 2005.
MSK Prasad said that it is completely fair for Rayudu to disagree with his methods, but he had no bias against him when he picked the Indian side for the 2019 World Cup.
“In a team, a small difference can happen during a long cricketing season. There can be a difference of opinion between brothers also. But that cannot be the reason to carry such small differences here and there to such a big platform like the Indian cricket team’s selection. Rayudu got selected for Indian Team for all the previous international games before the World Cup. When one doesn’t have differences for those matches then how come any difference will come for World Cup selections? I want to clear the air that the selection process is a complete collective decision but it will never be an individual opinion or decision,” Prasad added.
Rayudu recently retired from all forms of the game after the CSK franchise won the IPL 2023.