England may have dented India’s jewel-dripped status of being the unbeaten troopers at the World Cup, but that hasn’t stopped the men in blue from continuing their victory campaign at behest of some stellar performances.
The team, after beating Bangladesh on Tuesday has become the second after Australia to find a spot in the semi-finals. However, the journey only gets tougher from here and challenges ahead of the team are stemmed deeply to the fact that two of India's prized possessions -- Shikhar Dhawan and Vijay Shankar -- registered injuries.
The damage control has of course been instantaneous and there is in essence, no cause of alarm with Rishabh Pant and Mayank Agarwal roped in as replacements. The prospects for the Indian cricket team, as fans would declare, continue to look bright.
However, not for all. Amid all this, there is one man who has still been left out from any kind of attention or selection – Ambati Rayudu.
Turns out though, the cricketer who hadn’t received a call even after Dhawan’s ouster has now been offered an olive branch from a faraway land.
Its Iceland that has decided it wants to capitalize on Rayadu’s rejection.
In a bizarre tweet, Iceland cricket has offered Ambati Rayudu permanent residency in their country so that he can play for them after he was once again looked over for a World Cup spot in the Indian team.
Rayudu initially criticized the selectors for not picking him in India’s squad that travelled to England and was also not called up following injuries to and Vijay Shankar, with Pant and Agarwal selected instead of him.
Building on this, Iceland in a tweet said that Mayank Agarwal, who was the latest call up to the Indian team, only has three professional wickets at 72.33 and that Rayudu could play for them instead.
They did not stop here and further tweeted out the application form for permanent residency in Iceland if he intended to take them up on their offer.
Iceland Cricket had earlier come under the scanner for taking a scouring jibe at Afghanistan’s wrist-spinner Rashid Khan, who was decimated by England captain Eoin Morgan’s in his record-breaking innings at the World Cup showdown between the two countries.
Rashid conceded 110 runs in his nine overs against England, who registered an easy victory on the back of Morgan’s incredible batting. By the end of the game, Rashid had bowled the most spell in the history of World Cups. He was dispatched for 11 sixes during England's innings.