Former Indian cricketer Suresh Raina praised his CSK teammate and his performances. He added that India would have won the World Cup if Rayudu was part of the team.
Talking about India’s number four concern, Raina said that Rayudu would have been a good fit.
“I wanted Rayudu to be India’s number four because he was working very hard, he played almost one and half years,” Raina said to Harsha Bhogle for CricBuzz.
“He performed really 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.”
“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,” he added.
Rayudu was India’s choice to Number four until the World Cup. However, the Indian selectors went ahead with Vijay Shankar and Rayudu was left out of the squad.
India failed it make it to the final. They ended up losing the semi-final to New Zealand.