Robin Uthappa has been one of the stalwarts of the Indian Premier League (IPL). While he featured for the likes of Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Pune Warriors in the first few years, he found a home in Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) where he played for six seasons including the breakthrough in 2014 where he scored 660 runs and was the Orange Cap winner.
However, after 2017, Uthappa’s average and strike rate dropped and he was later released by KKR. Rajasthan Royals (RR) picked him at the 2020 player auction but his batting order wasn’t set and hence didn’t get the consistency he would have liked and wasn’t retained by the side. However, instead of going into the auction, Uthappa was snapped by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for an all-cash deal with RR and the move has certainly paid off for him.
While many thought that Uthappa’s dear friend and former CSK skipper MS Dhoni had a role to play, Uthappa said that it wasn’t him but another CSK star Ambati Rayudu who was responsible for the transfer.
Speaking about the same to Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube channel, Uthappa narrated the whole story from how he was approached by Rayudu to when the deal was made. “Kerala had a Syed Mushtaq game against Andhra in Bombay. Amba [Rayudu] was leading the Andhra side. Rayudu asked, ‘what’s happening with you’. He was like, ‘Bro, I’ll do one thing. I will give you Kasi Sir’s [CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan] number. You call Kasi sir. We want a player like you in our team. Why don’t you give him a call?'”
Uthappa then said that he knew that the transfer was going to take place, so he gave Kasi Viswanathan a call and when the CSK CEO asked him what he could do for him, he said straight up that RR are in talks of transferring him and he was keen on playing for CSK.
“From RR I got to know that the conversations had begun and we will see where it goes and then Kasi sir called me after two days. I was leaving Bombay. He said, ‘Rob the deal is done. You’re gonna be coming to us. MS said that he doesn’t have anything to do with the decision. The support staff believes that you’ll be a great value to our team’.”
Uthappa then said that the CEO of the franchise forwarded it to the management and the support staff and called him after two days.
After which, the 36-year old revealed what Dhoni said to him a couple of days later. Uthappa mentioned that Dhoni made sure he didn’t have any role to play in this decision as he wanted Uthappa to be picked on his own credentials and second, that people shouldn’t think that because he is his friend that’s why CSK roped him in.
CSK bought Uthappa back at the mega auction and his performances have just seen an upsurge. The Kerala batter was the player of the match for his innings in Qualifier 1 against Delhi Capitals in IPL 2021 and in 7 matches for CSK till now, Uthappa has scored 206 runs at a strike rate of 145.
