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Ordered 3D glasses: Ambati Rayudu after World Cup snub over ‘three-dimensional’ Vijay Shankar

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Ambati Rayudu. (Photo: Twitter/@RayuduAmbati)


In a disappointing decision for experienced batsman Ambati Rayudu, the Board of Cricket Control in India dropped him from the India World Cup squad announced on 15 April.

The selectors chose all-rounder Vijay Shankar over 33-year-old Rayudu for the contentious number four spot in the squad.

“We did give a few more chances to Rayudu but Vijay Shankar gives three dimensions. He can bat, if the conditions are overcast, he can bowl, plus he is a fielder. We are looking at Vijay Shankar as a No. 4,” chief selector MSK Prasad reasoned on Monday.

READ | India World Cup squad announced; Dinesh Karthik in, Rishabh Pant out

The decision, it seems, did not go down well with Rayudu. Taking to Twitter, he took a sarcastic dig at the selectors’ decision.

“Just Ordered a new set of 3d glasses to watch the world cup,” the cricketer posted on Tuesday.

The selectors’ view had been endorsed by former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, who called Vijay Shankar a “very handy cricketer”.

Rayudu had been going through a rough patch. He even given up on Test cricket to better his limited-overs game but had been inconsistent with his performance.

During the tour of Australia last year, he had played only two ODIs but emerged the highest run-getter for India in the New Zealand tour, with 190 runs in five innings (average 63.33; strike rate 82.25).

However, Rayudu’s performance in the three outings against Australia in the five-match ODI home series, and also in the Indian Premier League, left a lot to be desired and cost him his spot in the WC squad.

His witty tweet after getting dropped from the team, meanwhile, invited a lot of reactions. At the time of writing, the tweet posted at 4.36 pm had been shared nearly 5,900 times and garnered more than 30,000 ‘likes’. There were more than 2,500 comments too. While many supported him, others did not like it, though the Twitterati in general found the tweet funny and reacted accordingly.

Here are some of the reactions.

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