Former Indian cricketer Ambati Rayudu has questioned Kevin Piettersen’s ipl contributions while featuring for the Royal Challengers Bengale.

He took a dig at England legend Kevin Pietersen for his ‘joker’ comment after the Kolkata Knight Riders-Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2024 finals in Chennai while on broadcasting duties.

On the evening of the final played at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Rayudu was seen sporting an orange waistcoat in support of SRH before switching to another colour in the evening as the Knight Riders clinched their title.

Kevin Pietersen had backed KKR even before the game had playfully mocked Rayudu for switching sides. “I have at least half firm. I wore it and I owned it. You are a joker, always a joker,” said Pietersen to Rayudu on Air.

To which Rayudu responded, “I am supporting both the teams. I am supporting good cricket.”

Now, months later, Ambati Rayudu has fired back at Kevin Pietersen. On a recent podcast with Shubhankar Mishra, he opened up about the incident and threw a brutal dig at Pietersen’s own IPL record, saying he achieved nothing while playing for RCB.

The former CSK star further revealed that Pietersen later apologised to him privately, admitting he should not have said such words on air. But Rayudu was clear, it did not affect him much, though Pietersen felt the heat of the backlash.

“That day we had not picked teams. Chennai was hot, so I had two jackets. On air, he said whatever, but we could also tell him things because he played for RCB and did not do anything. I was maintaining professional decorum,” added Rayudu.

“He apologized also later that I should not have said that on air. We were just having banter, but people took it in some way. But it affected him more and not me,” Rayudu said.

Kevin Pietersen played for RCB in 2009 and 2010 but managed to score only 93 runs in six games in 2009 and 236 runs from seven matches in 2010, hardly the impact expected from a superstar.

After the heat, Ambati Rayudu got intense, Kevin Pietersen had to clarify his stand on X. He said that tribalism against Indian players shouldn’t be promoted and the abuse against Rayudu must stop.

“Come on guys! This tribalism with/against Indian players on social media needs to slow down! Example –  @RayuduAmbati and I were messing around after the IPL final and all of sudden that banter has turned into an avalanche of abuse towards Ambati. PLEASE stop it? said Pietersen wrote in his tweet.