Image: Uthappa accused Kohli of biased team decisions, citing Rayudu's World Cup exclusion / © Times Now
With the poor form of Ambati Rayudu during the 2019 World Cup selection phase, Robin Uthappa has accused Virat Kohli of influencing the exclusion of Rayudu from the Indian squad. Uthappa claimed that Kohli’s personal preferences shaped team decisions, often leaving players like Rayudu and Yuvraj Singh heartbroken. According to Uthappa, Rayudu, who had already received his World Cup kit, was abruptly dropped despite being on the cusp of selection.
Rayudu wasn’t recalled even when injuries hit key players Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay Shankar during the tournament. Uthappa criticized Kohli’s approach, stating that personal biases should not outweigh the team’s needs. He said:
If he (Virat Kohli) didn’t like anyone, he didn’t feel someone was good, then they were cut. (Ambati) Rayudu is the prime example. You feel bad. Everybody has preferences, I agree, but you cannot close the door on a player after taking him to the cusp. He had World Cup clothes, a World Cup kit bag; everything was there at his home. A player would be thinking that he is going to the World Cup. But you shut the door on him. That wasn’t fair according to me.
Rayudu, who played 61 international matches and amassed over 4300 IPL runs with a strike rate of 127.54, retired in 2023 after a successful IPL career. Despite his achievements, Rayudu publicly blamed former selector MSK Prasad for his exclusion, though Prasad insisted team decisions were collective, involving the captain.