In his two-year-old international career, Ambati Rayudu has watched more matches from the Indian dressing room than he has been part of. Often he is summoned in when one of the first-choice batsmen gets injured or is rested. Rayudu waits patiently. And when his turn comes, he delivers more often than disappoints. In 30 ODIs so far, he has scored 911 runs at 45.55 with five fifties and two centuries, batting at Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 7. During India’s last ODI series, in Bangladesh, MS Dhoni said of Rayudu: “He's a good character to have. He’s not someone who looks very stylish but he can score runs, which I feel is more important in the middle-order.” Now, in Zimbabwe with most senior players being rested, Rayudu proved those words true, albeit batting at No. 3. In the first ODI, India’s innings was crumpling at 87 for 5. Rayudu watched the back of four of his partners in the space of seven overs. He hung in there and found an able partner in Stuart Binny with whom he notched up a partnership of 160. Rayudu finished the innings with an unbeaten 124 – his second ODI century and a personal best score in international cricket. After India’s tantalizing for-run win, Rayudu spoke with bcci.tv. His words were candid and his demeanour simple as he talked us through the perennial uncertainty over his place in the playing XI and his honest method of dealing with it. Your second ODI century, highest ODI score and it came when the team was in dire straits. Must be really satisfying? Definitely. I would rate this as one of my better innings, especially scoring it after the team being five down. The ball was doing a lot at the start. It felt like we were batting in England rather than in Zimbabwe. It feels satisfying because we could win the game on the back of it. Talk about your partnership with Stuart Binny. The two of you got together when the team was really struggling. How did you plan the innings from there on? I told Stuey to hold back for a bit and play like it’s a Test match for seven-eight overs. I held him back till about the 42nd over and kept telling him to hang on because we could not afford to lose another wicket. It worked out well. We were trying to run hard and get a lot of singles. The good thing about Stuey’s innings was that he batted sensibly and even so maintained a good strike-rate, which made my job easier. You mentioned there was a lot of swing early on. Did the pitch and conditions ease out during the course of the innings? It eased out in the second innings when we came on to bowl. It was a different wicket altogether. And that’s why I think the toss will be really crucial throughout the series. The matches begin early at 9am and the temperature is as low as seven degrees, which makes the ball zip around in the morning. It is commendable that even though the odds were against us condition wise, we could pull off a win today. I hope we win the toss in the coming matches. It got a litter tighter than you would have liked in the end, didn’t it? I was very, very confident about Bhuvi because he is not a bowler who will have two bad overs in a row. He had a bad previous over and I was really counting on him to deliver in the final one. This IPL he bowled brilliantly at the death and I truly believe that he has developed into one of the world’s best death bowlers today. I am glad he showed it today. Some of your best ODI performances have come at No. 3. It suits your game well? Actually, I am not really bothered about where I bat. I am not the kind who wants to get fifties and hundreds. Making crucial contributions to the team’s wins makes me happier. I really enjoyed my 44 in the third ODI against Bangladesh where batting with Dhoni bhai I could get the team out of jail and we won from there. Things like that are more satisfying than hundreds on flat wickets. Batting at No. 3 you have more time to pace your innings and get a big one. But I am okay with batting at 5 because I am pretty used to it. Even for Mumbai Indians I bat at that position in tough situations and it gets the best out of me. How do you adapt your batting to situations where you have to steady the innings and take it forward at the same time? I have been batting in situations like that for the last four-five years in the IPL. Also I have been part of the Indian team for a couple of years now and have spent a lot of time sitting in the change room watching Dhoni bhai bat in similar situations. I keep observing what he does and how he controls the game. There is a lot you can learn just by sitting out and I am happy that whatever I am learning, I am able to implement in the middle. You often play a game or two and then have to sit out for a series. How do you deal with that uncertainty and the break in rhythm it brings about? That is the situation and that is the reality. So you have to accept it and adapt to it. I keep things very simple. The main thing is that I don’t set any milestones for myself, so a lot of pressure goes away there. I am very happy to get whatever games I get and every game I play for India, I play it as if it is going to be my last. I enjoy watching my top-class team-mates perform and wait for my opportunity. When a game is on and I am sitting out, I visualize myself playing out there and what I would do. Virat suggested this to me and it has really helped me in that when I actually get a game, I am prepared, I am mentally there because in my mind I have played the previous matches. So, even when you’re sitting out for a long time, it is important to be mentally aware of what is going on on the field and be involved. You never know when the next opportunity pops up. And this is not only in my case. There are so many guys like Stuey, Axar (Patel) and others who have spent a lot of time sitting out, and we all keep ourselves mentally ready for our next game rather than being discouraged. These are good habits that are being cultivated in the Indian dressing room and if all the youngsters that are coming in adopt the same mindset it will really take the team to greater heights.