New Delhi, 8 July (His). Ahead of the inaugural season of Major League Cricket (MLC), Texas Super Kings have confirmed that former India batsman Ambati Rayudu will not feature in the league this year. Rayudu, who recently announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, has pulled out of the franchise-based league due to personal reasons.
Rayudu was part of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) team that won their fifth Indian Premier League (IPL) title by defeating Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad in May this year. His retirement announcement before the IPL 2023 final made him eligible to participate in foreign leagues. Soon after, he was named in the Texas Super Kings, an associate franchise of CSK, which will participate in the MLC. He was set to join his CSK teammates Devon Conway, Mitchell Santner, Men in Yellow’s bowling coach Dwayne Bravo in Texas.
The Texas Super Kings team will begin their MLC 2023 campaign against the Los Angeles Knight Riders at Grand Prairie, Texas. The team signed nine players in the Preliminary Player Draft held on March 19, including Rusty Theron, Calvin Savage, Lahiru Milantha, Milind Kumar, Sami Aslam, Cameron Stevenson, Kodi Chetty, Zia Shehzad and Saiteja Mukkamalla.
The Texas Super Kings team will be led by Faf du Plessis who has previously played for CSK in the IPL but currently leads Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian T20 tournament. He captained Jojoba Super Kings in SA20, another franchise owned by the owners of CSK. David Miller, D.el Sams and Gerald Coetzee are other international stars who will be a part of the franchise.
According to an official release, KS Viswanathan, CEO, Chennai Super Kings Cricket Limited said, “We are excited to take forward our long association with Faf du Plessis. He led the Joburg Super Kings in the SA20 earlier this year and we are confident that we will do well under his leadership in Texas as well. We are also delighted to have signed Ambati Rayudu, Devon Conway, Mitchell Santner, Dwayne Bravo and Gerald. Coetzee has also added some exciting talent from across the United States and around the world to the Super Kings family. There is a good balance in the team and we will do our best.”
