Venugopal Rao was born on February 26, 1982 at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. He is a right hand batsman and started playing cricket at the age of ten. In domestic cricket he plays for Andhra Pradesh. He has an outstanding record in domestic cricket. He also made an unbeaten 228 runs for south zone against visiting England-A team, which included Test bowlers like Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff, while chasing the target of huge 501 runs. It was the fourth-highest successful first-class chase. Venugopal was in the Indian team that won the Under-19 World Cup in 2002.He was awarded Border -Gavaskar scholarship. Yalaka Venugopal Rao is a right-handed batsman of Andhra Pradesh Cricket team and a right-arm offbreak bowler.
He was selected in the Indian team for the 2005 Indian Oil Cup after suspension of Saurav Ganguly. He made his only half century against Pakistan. He is not a permanent member of national team. During 2005-06 seasons he got chance mostly when others were rested but he was failed to prove himself and not any international game since April 2006. He has been captaining the Indian-A side and Board President XI. He has also played for team India, India A, Indian Board President`s XI and Rajasthan Cricket Association President`s XI Cricket team.
The `First-class` match debut of Y Venugopal Rao was in 1998-99. In the `List A` matches, Yalaka Venugopal Rao debuted in 1998-99. The `Twenty20` match debut of Yalaka Venugopal Rao was against Tamil Nadu on April 3 in 2007, which was held at Visakhapatnam.
In the One Day International (ODI) matches, Yalaka Venugopal Rao debuted against Sri Lanka on July 30 in 2005, which was held at Dambulla.
Cricket Statistics of Venugopal Rao
Batting and Fielding Averages
| Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | BF | SR | 100 | 50 | 4s | 6s | Ct | St | |
| ODIs | 16 | 11 | 2 | 218 | 61* | 24.22 | 363 | 60.05 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 3 | 6 | 0 |
| First-class | 97 | 159 | 18 | 5982 | 228* | 42.42 | 13 | 28 | 81 | 0 | ||||
| List A | 124 | 109 | 14 | 3614 | 113 | 38.04 | 10 | 22 | 40 | 0 | ||||
| Twenty20 | 61 | 55 | 8 | 1072 | 71* | 22.80 | 875 | 122.51 | 0 | 6 | 80 | 41 | 15 | 0 |
Bowling Averages
| Mat | Inns | Balls | Runs | Wkts | BBI | BBM | Ave | Econ | SR | 4w | 5w | 10 | |
| ODIs | 16 | - | |||||||||||
| First-class | 97 | 5166 | 2405 | 65 | 4/34 | 37.00 | 2.79 | 79.4 | 0 | 0 | |||
| List A | 124 | 3043 | 2477 | 53 | 5/20 | 5/20 | 46.73 | 4.88 | 57.4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Twenty20 | 61 | 21 | 282 | 406 | 8 | 2/23 | 2/23 | 50.75 | 8.63 | 35.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Career in Indian Premier League
Venugopal Rao was bought by the Hyderabad franchisee Deccan Chargers in the inaugural version of the Indian Premier League, 2008. In the opening edition of the IPL, the Deccan Chargers team performed really badly, but Rao had a successful campaign. He made 365 runs in 14 innings, which had 3 fifties at a strike rate of 124.57. He also hit 16 sixes and 26 fours in the tournament.
| Bowling | Matches | Innings | Runs | Wickets | Avg. | Econ. | SR | 4W | 5W | Best Figures |
| IPL 2008 | 11 | 10 | 137 | 2 | 68.5 | 9.78 | 42 | 0 | 0 | 2/25 v Mumbai Indians |
| IPL 2009 | 13 | 11 | 122 | 4 | 30.5 | 8.13 | 22.5 | 0 | 0 | 2/23 v Rajasthan Royals |
| Batting | Matches | Innings | Not out | Runs | HS | Avg. | BF | SR | 4s | 6s | 50s | 100s |
| IPL 2008 | 11 | 10 | 2 | 288 | 71* v Kolkata Knight Riders | 36 | 210 | 137.14 | 22 | 15 | 2 | 0 |
| IPL 2009 | 13 | 11 | 2 | 116 | 32 v Kings XI Punjab | 12.88 | 103 | 112.62 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
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