Chennai Super Kings CEO Kasi Viswanathan clarified that Ambati Rayudu is “not retiring” from the Indian Premier League after the batter created a social media frenzy by announcing his retirement in a now-deleted tweet. 

“He was a bit disappointed that he was not doing well. So, he mistakenly put out that tweet. I have explained things to him. He is not retiring,” Vishwanathan told NDTV over a phone call. “He will be with us.”

Speaking to PTI, he said, “Yes, he did tweet about it. May be it was in an emotional state he tweeted. He has been spoken to and subsequently deleted the tweet.”

On Saturday morning, the 36-year-old player took to Twitter to announce his “retirement” from the league. 

“I am happy to announce that this will be my last IPL. I have had a wonderful time playing it and being a part of 2 great teams for 13 years,” tweeted Rayudu. “Would love to sincerely thank Mumbai Indians and CSK for the wonderful journey.”

During his over-decade IPL career, Rayudu represented two franchises. He was first picked up by Mumbai Indians in 2010 and was part of the squad when it won the trophy in 2013, 2015 and 2017. He was picked up by CSK in 2018.

In his entire IPL career, the 36-year-old Hyderabad middle-order batter accounted for 4,187 runs at an average of 29.28, scoring one century and 22 fifties. He is also the 10th Indian to reach the milestone of 4,000 runs in IPL.

In the last IPL in the UAE, Rayudu scored 257 runs from 13 innings with a tournament-best of 72 not out. He was retained by CSK but later the four-time champions successfully picked him up for Rs 6.75 crore.

He has been struggling in the ongoing IPL season, scording 271 runs at a strike-rate of 124.