Asia Cup 2018: 5 Team India members who have something to prove

Ambati Rayudu

Scrambling to make an impact

Only 32 years of age, Ambati Rayudu has had enough trials and tribulations in his cricketing career to last a lifetime. The agony of not fulfilling his youthful promise. The self-inflicted ICL exile. The surreal moment when he realized that M.S. Dhoni did not trust him with the strike during an ultimately failed T20 run chase against England in 2014. The frustration of warming the bench during the 2015 World Cup. And then, the yo-yo test.

The last one must still sting. Coming off of a very prolific IPL season, wherein he reinvented himself as an opener for the victorious Chennai Super Kings, Rayudu failed a fitness test, and lost his place in the limited overs team for the tour of England a couple of months ago. Hearing batting coach Sanjay Bangar state that places for the 2019 World Cup squad were still up for grabs must have especially rankled. Was he to be a perpetual nearly-man; agonizingly near, and yet so far?

Yet, here he is. Back once again in the team. The consummate survivor. Often knocked down, but never knocked out. However, time is fast running out.

His multiple recalls have as much to do with his own perseverance, as they have to do with other players' failure to lock down the last middle-order batting slot.

He will be competing with Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, and another nearly-man, Manish Pandey, for two middle-order slots. Given their styles of play, it is likely that Karthik and Rayudu will compete for the number 4 slot, and Jadhav and Pandey for the number 6 slot. Karthik is the man in possession, and Jadhav was a regular fixture in the side before getting injured. As such, it is likely that Rayudu will have to wait his turn.

If and when he gets his chance, he will have to make it count. With less than a year till the World Cup, the team management will want to start penciling a tentative batting order. A strong performance in this tournament will go a long way in being factored into those plans. However, conversely, failures in this tournament will likely sound a death knell for World Cup ambitions.

Rayudu is in a less than enviable position. If Karthik does well, he may well be discarded from the next squad without playing a single game. And if Karthik fails, Rayudu will bear the treble pressure of a World Cup audition, making a comeback, and attempting to stabilize a struggling middle-order. Not to mention the fact that he batted with the most freedom he has in a long time as an opener, and will now be shunted back into the middle order.

No pressure, then.