“The confidence level going into the World Cup wasn’t there”, says former India selector, Gagan Khoda on Rayudu’s World Cup omission

The MSK Prasad-led selection committee sprung up a surprise when they omitted Rayudu from the squad and picked Vijay Shankar instead. It led to a lot of controversy with many feeling that Rayudu was wronged in the situation.

Heading into the 2019 World Cup, it looked like Ambati Rayudu was lock-in for the squad after being the preferred choice for Team India at the no.4 slot for the last one year. But the MSK Prasad-led selection committee sprung up a surprise when they omitted Rayudu from the squad and picked Vijay Shankar instead. It led to a lot of controversy with many feeling that Rayudu was wronged in the situation.

Controversially, Rayudu continued the public discourse. He took to social media to post a sarcasm laden post regarding certain ‘3D’ glasses that he had bought. As such, it was a jibe at the selection committee which chose to prefer Vijay Shankar for his ‘three dimensional’ characteristics in their words.

Advertisement

The no.4 slot eventually turned out to be India’s Achilles heel at the World Cup as they bowed in the semis to New Zealand with the batsmen failing at the penultimate hurdle.

Part of the decision-making team in the selection committee, Gagan Khoda talked about the controversial choice in an interview with Sportskeeda. He said that Rayudu’s confidence going into the 2019 World Cup was low and that played into the minds of the selectors.

“Ambati Rayudu was experienced and you were looking at the World Cup. We carried on with him for a year but we felt he was getting stagnant. The confidence level going into the World Cup wasn’t there. We couldn’t get any youngster in because the tournament was in England also.”

Former Head of selectors, MSK Prasad recently opened up on the issue, adding that he felt bad for the Hyderabad cricketer.