Robin Uthappa was one of the very few cricketers who redefined the art of scoring runs at a rate of knots with his aggressive brand of cricket during the heydays of his cricketing career. The veteran who was part of the Indian squad that clinched the ICC T20 World Cup 2007 has been one of the pivotal parts of Indian cricket history during the initial years of his international career.
However, his performances took a big hit as his journey progressed and was overlooked by the selectors before he was shown the exit door. He represented the Indian cricket team in 46 ODIs and 13 T20Is, scoring 934 and 249 runs in the respective formats. Uthappa hammered 6 fifties in ODIs and 1 fifty in T20Is. While his international career didn’t take off properly, he ensured to inflate his IPL career to a considerable extent.
Robin Uthappa reflects on his disappointment after RCB released him ahead of IPL 2011
The Bengaluru-born kick-started his IPL chapter with Mumbai Indians and following he played for Royal Challengers Bangalore, with whom he spent the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Uthappa who got the hang of playing in the IPL and rubbed shoulders with his teammates was not retained by RCB ahead of the fourth edition of India’s premier T20 tournament. Reflecting on his early years in the IPL, he said he was taken aback when RCB didn’t retain him despite playing well.
“I felt bad when I moved from RCB to Pune Warriors India because I would have loved to play for RCB. In fact, I thought I’d get retained because I won the award for hitting the highest number of sixes, and won a few matches single-handedly. My first year in RCB was very tragic for me. Although I loved my two years with RCB, they were very forthcoming. Ray Jennings was an incredible coach and literally took care of me as a son there. We shared a very cordial relationship. Even though he was a hard taskmaster, I enjoyed my time with him,” Uthappa opened up on his gut-wrenching moment when RCB didn’t retain him, while speaking to Sportstar.
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The 37-year-old started a new chapter at Pune Warriors India (now-defunct franchise) for a staggering Rs 9.66 crore at the IPL 2011 auction. Overall, he played as many as 205 games, in which he scored 4952 runs at an average of 27.5 and a healthy strike rate of 130.3 including 27 half-centuries. He last played for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2022 season before he called it quits from international and Indian cricket.
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