Yalaka Venugopal Rao (born 26 February 1982) is an Indian former

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er. He played as a right-handed middle order batsman and right arm off-break bowler. He was the first Indian "super sub" in One Day International (ODI) cricket. He played large part of his career for his home

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

in first class cricket and then went on to play for India between 2005 and 2006. He also opened the batting for India in a one-day series in

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

. He has a brother Gnaneshwara Rao who has played for

Kochi Tuskers Kerala Kochi Tuskers Kerala was a franchise cricket team that played in the Indian Premier League (IPL) representing the city of Kochi, Kerala. The team was one of two new franchises added to the IPL for the 2011 season, alongside Pune Warriors India ...

in IPL. He also played for Maharashtra,

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

and

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

between 2007 and 2015 and in between came back to play for Andhra between 2009 and 2012 and came back again for a single match in 2017 season.

International career

Venugopal Rao started his career playing for

in domestic matches and impressed Indian selectors with a First-class average of over 50 and List-A average of around 40. This included one innings in the Ranji Trophy for South Zone where he scored 223 against a touring England A team which included Test bowlers such as Simon Jones and

Andrew Flintoff Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff (born 6 December 1977) is an English television and radio presenter and former international cricketer. Flintoff played all forms of the game and was one of the sport's leading all-rounders, a fast bowler, middle-ord ...

. He consequently earned a call up to the national side for the

2005 Indian Oil Cup The Indian Oil Cup 2005 was a three-team One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament held in Sri Lanka between 30 July and 7 August 2005. The participating teams were hosts Sri Lanka, and India and West Indies. Sri Lanka won the tournament b ...

in July 2005, after captain

Sourav Ganguly Sourav Chandidas Ganguly (; natively spelled as Gangopadhyay; born 8 July 1972), affectionately known as Dada (meaning ''"elder brother"'' in Bengali), is an Indian cricket administrator, commentator and former national cricket team captain w ...

was dropped from the team. He made sporadic appearances throughout the Indian 2005/06 season, mostly when other players were being rested under a rotation policy. He was unable to establish a position in the team, and did not play any further ODIs after May 2006. His poor domestic form further lead him to out of contention for national team.

Indian Premier League

Rao was selected into the

Deccan Chargers The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by the ...

in the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

in 2008. He was part of their successful 2009 campaign. He was bought by Delhi for 70 lakh INR for

IPL 2011 The 2011 Indian Premier League season, abbreviated as IPL 4 or the IPL 2011, was the fourth season of the Indian Premier League, the top Twenty20 cricket league in India. The tournament was hosted in India and the opening and closing ceremonies ...

. For

IPL 2014 The 2014 season of the Indian Premier League, abbreviated as IPL 7 or Pepsi IPL 2014, was the seventh season of the IPL, a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. The tournam ...

, he was purchased by Sunrisers Hyderabad for 55 lakh INR but was released after the season.

References

External links

*
Interview with Y.Venugopal Rao on Cricketfundas.comInterview with Y.Venugopal Rao on Sportstar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rao, Venugopal Yalaka 1982 births Living people Indian cricketers India One Day International cricketers India Red cricketers Andhra cricketers Deccan Chargers cricketers Delhi Capitals cricketers Sunrisers Hyderabad cricketers South Zone cricketers Cricketers from Visakhapatnam Maharashtra cricketers Gujarat cricketers Rajasthan cricketers