‘You have so much to be proud of’ – Cricketing fraternity pays tribute to Ambati Rayudu after he announces IPL retirement

Ambati Rayudu (Photo Source: twitter)

Chennai Super Kings player Ambati Rayudu has announced that he will retire from the Indian Premier League after the IPL 2023 final. CSK and Gujarat Titans are all set to clash in the final on Sunday, May 28 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Rayudu has played 15 matches for CSK in the ongoing season and scored 139 runs with the bat. The 37-year-old made his IPL debut way back in 2010 playing for Mumbai Indians and played 13 more seasons of the league.

The middle-order batter played for two of the most successful teams throughout his career namely CSK and MI and has won five IPL trophies in his career (3 for MI and 2 for CSK) thus far. The Andhra Pardesh-born batter announced his retirement ahead of the upcoming final and thanked his fans for their support.

“2 great teams mi nd csk,204 matches,14 seasons,11 playoffs,8 finals,5 trophies.hopefully 6th tonight. It’s been quite a journey.I have decided that tonight’s final is going to be my last game in the Ipl.i truly hav enjoyed playing this great tournament.Thank u all. No u turn 😂🙏,” Rayudu wrote on Twitter.

Notably, the CSK player had also announced his retirement during the 2022 edition of the tournament. However, he deleted the Tweet a few minutes after posting it and continued to play the T20 extravaganza.

The former India cricketer had also announced his retirement from all forms of cricket after being overlooked by the selectors for the ODI World Cup 2019 despite getting backing from the team management leading into the mega event. However, he soon came out of retirement to play in domestic cricket as well as IPL.

Rayudu had a great debut season in IPL 2010 scoring 356 runs in 14 innings for MI and took them to the final of the tournament where they lost against CSK. However, he went on to win three trophies with Mumbai in 2013, 2015 and 2017 respectively.

AmbatI Rayudu’s dream IPL season

He was later picked up by CSK in 2018 where he had his best season ever scoring 602 runs in 16 matches at an average of 43 and a strike rate of 149.75 with one hundred and three fifties to his name. Rayudu’s impressive performance helped CSK win their third title on their return to the tournament after two years. He further was a part of another winning season in 2021 while playing for the Yellow Army.

In 203 matches of his IPL career, he scored 4329 runs at an average of 28.29 and a strike rate of 127.29 with one hundred and 22 fifties to his name.

Meanwhile, Twitter was abuzz after Rayudu announced his retirement.

Here are some of the Tweets: