Umar Akmal and Ambati Rayudu: A tale of 2 wasted talents?

[Nikhil_cric]

Back in 2002, Ambati Rayudu was the most precocious young talent in India and was considered to be the rightful heir to the likes of SRT, Dravid etc. However, that was not to be and rayudu found himself in and out of the side over the years without cementing a spot. This west indies series is the best anyone has seen him perform consistently while scoring a at relatively good clip.

Umar's career on the hand started with a bang where he scored a ton on a tough, green wicket against a rampaging Shane Bond at the tender age of 19. For sheer natural talent , there was no one to compare him with. However, his career declined almost immediately as it struck new low after low even in ODI's after being axed from the test squad and is now no longer considered for any format.

While neither may fulfill their promise of potential in their youth, rayudu has shown that it is possible for such careers to have a 'second wind' after all. Can Umar, who at 28 is 5 years younger than rayudu, make a similar comeback and make the most of his chances? Discuss.

 

[Pakhs]

Good comparison, I feel for rayudu this coming WC maybe his last involvement with India which is a shame as recently he has developed into a really good player and finding some consistency as well. Regarding Umak Akmal who knows the future but he might aslo become similar to what Rayudu is at 33.

 

[Usman Chadda]

Umar Akmal was going toe-to-toe with Kohli at one point, so this is not really a comparison tbh. Rayudu has been nothing special, and I'm not counting IPL since I don't watch it.

For Akmal to make a comeback, he needs to start taking himself seriously. Even then I'm not sure he'll be back considering how bad he has regressed over the years.

 

[YousafTheBeast]

PCB are known for wrecking the careers of many talented cricketers. They done it with younis khan I think around 2008, they didn’t select moyo after 2010, dropped Malik after 2010 and didn’t feature in wc2011 and in 2008 Misbah didn’t feature in any test match. I can only see the same outcome for Umar Akmal, he’ll be re-selected at around 35 years old with a year or two remaining in his career.

 

[Sachin136]

Umar Akmal was going toe-to-toe with Kohli at one point, so this is not really a comparison tbh. Rayudu has been nothing special, and I'm not counting IPL since I don't watch it.

For Akmal to make a comeback, he needs to start taking himself seriously. Even then I'm not sure he'll be back considering how bad he has regressed over the years.

Rayudu averages 51 in ODIs.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Umar Akmal was going toe-to-toe with Kohli at one point, so this is not really a comparison tbh. Rayudu has been nothing special, and I'm not counting IPL since I don't watch it.

For Akmal to make a comeback, he needs to start taking himself seriously. Even then I'm not sure he'll be back considering how bad he has regressed over the years.

Rayudu regressed a lot too since his teenage years if you wanna go by that. Also atleast in ODIs, at no point were Umar and virat going toe to toe . Virats numbers were always better.

 

[gani999]

Rayudu has himself to blame for not getting selected earlier.

He always had the talent but was impatient in his younger days. Against the advice of his seniors, notably his coach Vijay Yadav, he decided to join the rebel ICL. That could have been a career finishing decision if the BCCI had decided not to pardon all the ICL players.

Very lucky escape for him.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Rayudu has himself to blame for not getting selected earlier.

He always had the talent but was impatient in his younger days. Against the advice of his seniors, notably his coach Vijay Yadav, he decided to join the rebel ICL. That could have been a career finishing decision if the BCCI had decided not to pardon all the ICL players.

Very lucky escape for him.

This is true. I also heard that just like akmal , rayudu had issues with his attitude

 

[troodon]

Rayadu is scoring now. But he will not when the pressure is on him against better bowling units.

I would pick Prithvi Shaw a head of Rayadu. Shaw will be an ATG in ODI cricket. He has that much potential. Rayadu at best is a utility player.

 

[ARK Rafay]

Rayudu will end on a high note here. He has few performances to show in WC19.

 

[ind_win]

Rayudu has himself to blame for not getting selected earlier.

He always had the talent but was impatient in his younger days. Against the advice of his seniors, notably his coach Vijay Yadav, he decided to join the rebel ICL. That could have been a career finishing decision if the BCCI had decided not to pardon all the ICL players.

Very lucky escape for him.

For all the attitude problems that Rayudu had, it is not true he was indifferent or arrogant with this coach of Hyderabad/selector too - he was shivlal yadav and not vijay yadav.

Shivlal yadav ( a typical corrupt guy) promoted his son and was the reason for Rayudu's non-selection and this was the first time when Rayudu strayed in his cricket journey - there was no looking back and continuous mistakes from Rayudu - fall in concentration+poor selection of teams+ICL led him to stray and fall down further.

If not for BCCI's lifiting of sanction on ex-ICL players his career was finished long time back.
All said and done he started out as a very promising player and was touted to be the next big thing.
He should be thankful for what he is today, whatever happened has happened.
If he could bring his IPL strike rate he would be useful, else with players like Hetmyer (who might very well fade away or become successful too) strike rate is an important factor in ODIs too with 300+ becoming achievable and common place and if one of your top 5 is with 75+ strike rate it is not useuful.

My complaint is with his attitude, he should be humble for what he is now as he is aware of his cricketing history and should mix aggression+caution in percentage game and be useful to the team.
I have no personal hatred for the guy except that he should upgrade his game - with the dead wood dhoni + yadav + karthik thrusted onto the ODI team, the team cannot afford another dead wood material.

 

[Shafi]

Why people are so obsessed with a hack like Umar Akmal? This guy has never had any talent. Most of the time he performed with with luck.
Only in Pakistan useless players like him can get so many chances. He would not even play first division matches in countries like S Africa, NZ, Australia, England, India.
Compare him with players like Rohit, Kohli or even Rayadu is very insulting to to their hard work and talent.

 

[Shafi]

Time to compare Umar Akmal with his caliber player like Kiron More. Both were wicket keeper but Umar is little bit ahead of him due to his few good knocks

 

[Barragan]

Ind would have made better use of Akmal than Pak.

When he was around 21 or 22 yrs old, he was the top 10 ODI batsman in the world as a no. 6 batsman, meaning best batsman in the side and a Test average of around 36, without batting in Asia (1 inning) and in places like Aus, Eng, NZ etc.

At that moment, he should have been given a go at no. 3 or 4 in ODI's and given a chance in Asia to prove himself in Test cricket, but he wasn't.

I'm sure, Ind management would have handled that situation much better than Pak management, considering they gave Raina a chance up top and persisted with Sharma to the death.

 

[ind_win]

To all Umar akmal's haters:

I am an Indian cricket follower and supporter, do not like the guy but admire his few cricketing knocks.

He has health issues. I think it has go to do with his behavior too. When things do not go down your way and when you started out big and fall so low that there is no coming back, I think that is what happened to him.

So, stop running him down. He has over-achieved already, keeping in view of his health problems and brought few smiles to Pak fans, be thankful for those moments.

If someone does not like him, fine.
But he definitely is fighting it out in life.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1036742/umar-akmal-suffered-epileptic-fit

 

[Rahul1]

Rayudu averages 51 in ODIs.

What about strike rate?

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Why people are so obsessed with a hack like Umar Akmal? This guy has never had any talent. Most of the time he performed with with luck.
Only in Pakistan useless players like him can get so many chances. He would not even play first division matches in countries like S Africa, NZ, Australia, England, India.
Compare him with players like Rohit, Kohli or even Rayadu is very insulting to to their hard work and talent.

Unfair bro. Umar never got to play as an opener in ODIs for a consistent period of time in order to improve his game and Pakistan were hell bent on playing him as a finisher. He never got chances up the order .

 

[Sachin136]

What about strike rate?

80, which is not bad.

 

[Barragan]

Ind would have made better use of Akmal than Pak.

When he was around 21 or 22 yrs old, he was the top 10 ODI batsman in the world as a no. 6 batsman, meaning best batsman in the side and a Test average of around 36, without batting in Asia (1 inning) and * in places like Aus, Eng, NZ etc.

At that moment, he should have been given a go at no. 3 or 4 in ODI's and given a chance in Asia to prove himself in Test cricket, but he wasn't.

I'm sure, Ind management would have handled that situation much better than Pak management, considering they gave Raina a chance up top and persisted with Sharma to the death.

Edit:
*batted primarily

 

[RyanRyan10]

What about strike rate?

79.72 which is not great

But 51 avg 79.7 SR is better than 34 avg 86 SR

And Rayudu also has 3 100s in 44 matches whereas Umar has just 2 100s in 116 matches

statistically Rayudu is ahead of Umar Akmal

PS:I am not a Rayudu fan and don't want him in the ICT

 

[barah_admi]

I dont know enough about Ryudu before his arrival in the INdian side and since then have seen nothing special but Umar Akmal was a teen prodigy, fluent with the bat, able to find the gaps and to change his batting when required. It was remarkable to see him in those early days, there was no one in his age bracket who was better, maybe no one since BUT he allowed himself to become a "star".

Having said that, he was also poorly treated by the management, moved around the batting order, dropped when he should have played, played when he should have been dropped. It is the worst example of wasted talent, both from the player and the system in modern cricket.

 

[Bhaijaan]

Rayudu was never a talent of Umar Akmal’s level. Even Kohli wasn’t at 19.

Umar was the 2nd most gifted teenage batsman ever after Sachin.

 

[Bhaag Viru Bhaag]

Are you trying to turbocharge Rayudu's career by comparing him with Umar Akmal?

 

[Ummii]

Rayudu was never a talent of Umar Akmal’s level. Even Kohli wasn’t at 19.

Umar was the 2nd most gifted teenage batsman ever after Sachin.

Itna ziada mazak sehat k lye acha nhi hota bro.

 

[rhony]

UA with all his attitude issues had a reasonable argument. He wanted to bat at the top of the order. It's not as if Pak had Anwar and Sohail at the top during UA's time. Misbah and Waqar for some reason never thought UA was top order material and should take partial blame in UA's career demise.

 

[rhony]

As far as Rayudu goes, I maintain that he's a hack. I've seen him in the series vs AUS and ENG before 2015 WC in AUS. He couldn't put bat to ball. He's feasting on IPL bowlers and substandard WI attack. Also, he chokes during chasing. Not a good trait considering this Indian team likes to chase often.

 

[dhawan]

As far as Rayudu goes, I maintain that he's a hack. I've seen him in the series vs AUS and ENG before 2015 WC in AUS. He couldn't put bat to ball. He's feasting on IPL bowlers and substandard WI attack. Also, he chokes during chasing. Not a good trait considering this Indian team likes to chase often.

which world did you watch that match?
He won a game chasing against England in england with a score of 64 notout when the rest failed to put bat to ball.

 

[dhawan]

2 fifties in 4 innings against England and an average of 50 plus.

 

[Bhaag Viru Bhaag]

As far as Rayudu goes, I maintain that he's a hack. I've seen him in the series vs AUS and ENG before 2015 WC in AUS. He couldn't put bat to ball. He's feasting on IPL bowlers and substandard WI attack. Also, he chokes during chasing. Not a good trait considering this Indian team likes to chase often.

This can't be true. I thought bowling attacks in IPL were of international quality and players can only improve there? So why are you degrading those bowling attacks now?

Rayudu is a hack but what about Pandya and Pant?

 

[rhony]

This can't be true. I thought bowling attacks in IPL were of international quality and players can only improve there? So why are you degrading those bowling attacks now?

Rayudu is a hack but what about Pandya and Pant?

Pandya is unique. There is no other AR in Indian setup. He's not a Kallis but still a pace AR. Pant can do better but wants to be a hack trying to hit every ball a sixer. Yes IPL is a criteria and a step before someone gets into the Indian team, but there are better players than Rayudu in the Indian setup.

 

[rhony]

which world did you watch that match?
He won a game chasing against England in england with a score of 64 notout when the rest failed to put bat to ball.

The tri series between Ind, AUS and Eng before 2015 WC in Australia.

 

[dhawan]

exactly he played just 1 match against australia which was washed out midway and he scored 23 off 24 with 2 fours and a six where as rahane scored 28 in 50 balls and the match was abandoned due to rain.

 

[Hawkeye]

mmm.

Umar Akmal has won us many many matches. He has absolutely thrashed bowlers like Shane Bond, other quality fast bowlers.

If Rayudu starts winning matches for you, then we can compare.

 

[gazza619]

But isnt Rayudu still playing for India? Not sure if the comparison is relevant.

 

[mastersaan10]

Rayudu is miles ahead. Umar can't even compare to India c players right now honestly, and most of our batsman are like that. Only fakhar and babar have some standard and maybe Malik, everyone else is minnow level. I still remember umar's career, it started so well batting at 4. Then he was pushed down and that's where the problem started. Kohli was introduced at 5-6 and pushed up but Umar was pushed down and I don't blame management also, he become irresponsible but he was never a hitter. He was an aggressive batsman who was busy in the beginning and could hit big. A career wasted by playing him lower and then him just forgetting his cricket.