While making the debut in the game is one of the great unforgettable moments for a cricketer, retiring from the game is one of the painful moments. But the player has to take the retirement decision from the game at a certain period of life.
However, there are some cricketers who have still felt passionate about the game even after their retirement. A few of them even decided to overturn their retirement decision and return to the game.
Great Cricketers Who Returned To The Game After Announcing Retirement
Ambati Rayudu
The Indian cricketer Ambati Rayudu was once a regular player in the Indian ODI side. After his international debut in 2013, though he played only six T20Is till 2016, he also played 55 ODIs till March 2019. After returning to the ODI side in September 2018 after waiting for more than two years, Rayudu was performing consistently at the no.3 and no.4 batting positions.
But Rayudu disappointed in his last international series (ODI series against Australia at home in March 2019) and he also failed to impress in the IPL 2019. Due to those weak performances, he was not included in the Indian 15-member squad for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. Although he was in the stand-by squad for that tournament, he was ignored during that tournament. When the all-rounder Vijay Shankar was ruled out from the middle of that tournament due to injury, uncapped ODI player Mayank Agarwal replaced him, who was not even in the stand-by squad for that tournament.
Earlier, after the original 15-member Indian squad selection for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, Rayudu tweeted “Just Ordered a new set of 3d glasses to watch the world cup” in the reaction of the “three-dimensional” cricketer comment of then chairman of the selection committee MSK Prasad for the all-rounder Vijay Shankar. In that period, Rayudu and Shankar were fighting for a spot in the Indian squad for that tournament.
In July 2019, Rayudu surprised everyone by announcing his retirement from all forms of cricket. However, later in August 2019, he changed his mind and announced his return in the game. After his return to the game, Rayudu served for the Hyderabad in the domestic List A and T20 tournaments. He is also ready to participate in the IPL 2020, where he will continue to perform for Chennai Super Kings (CSK).