Former cricketer Ambati Rayudu joins YSRCP

Amaravati: Former cricketer Ambati Rayudu joined the ruling YSRCP in the presence of chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in Amaravati on Thursday. With this political debut, Rayudu would be among the few cricketers from the Telugu states who chose politics after their sports career.

Rayudu announced retirement after IPL 2024. Ever since he met Jagan in May, rumours about Rayudu’s foray into politics have been doing rounds. However, Rayudu has not given any official statement.

Rayudu, who is from Guntur is a distant relative of Ambati Rambabu, a minister in the current YSRCP government. As a resident of Guntur, Rayudu says he is keen to give back to his state by creating more avenues for youth from the grassroots to learn and join professional sports.

It will be interesting to note Rayudu hails from the Kapu community which has taken centre stage after popular actors Konidela Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan entered politics. It is interesting to see how Rayudu will take on Jana Sena party chief Pawan Kalyan.

During a media interaction earlier, Rayudu said that he wants to get into public service full-fledged by learning about the problems of the public and farmers. Ever since then, there have been speculations of his political entry.

Rayudu has played 203 IPL games, scoring 4,329 runs at a strike rate of 127 with 22 half-centuries and a single century. The 602 runs in the 2018 season for CSK were his best effort.