Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen has called out online trolls who are harassing Ambati Rayudu. Rayudu has drawn criticism from supporters for making jokes about RCB and Virat Kohli. Rayudu made a subtle jab at Virat Kohli by stating that an IPL trophy is not guaranteed just because you score a lot of runs every season after the Indian Premier League ended. The former CSK player went on to say that instead of depending just on Kohli, RCB needed to have more faith in the younger players.
Rayudu called out
Pietersen and Matthew Hayden criticized Rayudu for his remarks during their panel commentary, citing instances in which RCB had shown faith in young players and players like Rajat Patidar had begun to step up.
In the same conversation, Pietersen referred to Rayudu as a “joker” after the former Indian cricket player had switched from orange to blue clothing following SRH’s defeat in the tournament final. This led to a lot of online trolls with fans calling Rayudu out on social media.
Pietersen comes to rescue
But Pietersen made an appearance on Tuesday afternoon and made an effort to defuse the situation.
“This tribalism with/against Indian players on social media needs to slow down! Ambati Raydu and I were messing around after the IPL final and all of a sudden that banter has turned into an avalanche of abuse towards Ambati. PLEASE stop it?” Pietersen tweeted.
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Notably, Rayudu in not the only cricketer to face the wrath of social media. Several others, most notably, Hardik Pandya of Mumbai Indians, have been constantly abused by the fans since he made his switch from Gujarat Titans and over reigns from Rohit Sharma. It remains to be seen if Pietersen’s appeal appeals to the trolls.
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