The unrest in the Chennai Super Kings camp again came to the forefront after senior batter Ambati Rayudu announced his "IPL retirement" on social media, only to backtrack within an hour after being talked out of it by the team management.
CSK are already out of the playoff race with a couple of matches left but already former skipper Ravindra Jadeja has gone home with a "bruised rib" but not before adding fuel to the speculations that he has had a fall-out with management after being told to relinquish captaincy.
On Saturday morning, the 36-year-old former India white-ball player took to Twitter to announce his decision.
"I am happy to announce that this will be my last ipl. I have had a wonderful time playing it and being a part of 2 great teams for 13 years. Would love to sincerely thank Mumbai Indians and Csk for the wonderful journey," Rayudu had tweeted.
But within an hour, the post was deleted as CSK owners and team management were completely caught unawares about Rayudu's decision which also raised questions about the communication channel in one of the most successful teams in IPL history.
"I can confirm that Ambati Rayudu is not retiring from IPL. Yes, he did tweet about it. Maybe it was in an emotional state he tweeted. He has been spoken to and subsequently deleted the tweet," CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan told PTI.
It is not the first time Rayudu made U-turn from a retirement decision. He made news following his "3-dimensional" tweet aimed at India selector MSK Prasad in the backdrop of his exclusion from the World Cup 2019 squad.
Subsequently, Rayudu retired from international cricket in July of the same year only to overturn his decision.
During his over-decade IPL career, Rayudu, an IPL legend, represented two franchises. He was first picked up by Mumbai Indians in 2010 after being granted amnesty by BCCI to return to the main fold following his stint in the de-recognised Indian Cricket League in 2007 and stayed there till 2017.
Rayudu is one of the most successful players in the IPL as he has been part of the title-winning sides on five occasions (2013, 2015, 2017 with Mumbai Indians and 2018, 2021 with Chennai Super Kings).
In his entire IPL career, Rayudu, 36, accounted for 4,187 runs at an average of 29.28, scoring one century and 22 fifties.
The Hyderabad middle-order batter also is the 10th Indian to reach the milestone of 4,000 runs in IPL.
In the ongoing IPL season, Rayudu has scored 271 runs at a strike rate of 124 but has often been seen struggling for fitness on the ground.
In the last IPL in the UAE, Rayudu scored 257 runs from 13 innings with a tournament-best of 72 not out. CSK retained him, but later, the four-time champions successfully picked him up for Rs 6.75 crore.
Rayudu played 55 ODIs and six T20Is for India, accumulating 1694 and 42 runs respectively. His best score in the ODIs is 124 not out against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club in 2015.
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