India was surely the best side in the league stages during the 2019 Cricket world cup. The men in blue lost as just a solitary match and were favourites alongside England to lift the cup. However, the fragile middle order of India again proved to be their Achilles heel in the semis as they crashed out of the tournament.
Now, former India player Suresh Raina believes that India would have surely benefited if Ambati Rayudu had batted at 4 in the World cup. The 2011 world cup champion stated that when back in 2018, Rayudu missed out on the tour of England after failing the yo-yo test he wasn’t happy about the decision.
Won World Cup if India had Rayudu – Raina
“I wanted Rayudu to be India’s number four because he was working very hard, playing almost one and a half years. He performed well and he wasn’t there. I didn’t enjoy the tour in 2018 because of the circumstances where Rayudu failed his fitness test. It didn’t feel good that I was picked as he failed,” Raina was quoted as saying in Cricbuzz.
The team management was backing Rayudu throughout the build-up of the world cup and allowed him to bat at number 4. But suddenly he was omitted from the squad when he failed to score in three matches ODI series in Australia in January 2019 which raised a lot of eyebrows.
Meanwhile, Suresh Raina openly admitted that Ambati Rayudu deserved to be in India’s World Cup squad last year. He reckons that if Rayudu was part of the squad then the Kohli led side would have surely lifted the world cup.
“He was good at number four. If he was part of the squad for the World Cup, we would have won the tournament. Rayudu was the best choice and as it’s the way he plays the game in the CSK. And he was batting really well in the camp in Chennai”, said Raina.
Moreover, the 34-year-old Rayudu has a batting average of 47 in his ODI career. In 55 ODIs he has amassed 1694 runs that included 3 centuries. Raina and Rayudu are teammates at the Chennai Super Kings and will be seen in action from September 19 in the UAE. Plus, On August 15, Raina, along with MS Dhoni, announced his retirement from international cricket.
