Venugopal Rao is a professional cricketer, who was born on February 26, 1982 in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. He is a right-handed batsman and also an off-break bowler.
In 2005, Venugopal Rao got a call for the national side and made his One Day International (ODI) debut on July 30 in a match against Sri Lanka at Dambulla. Since then, he has played in 16 ODIs and has scored 218 with a career best of 61 not out coming against Pakistan.
Venugopal Rao made his First-class debut for the Andhra during the 1998-99 Ranji Trophy season. With his impressive performance for this side, he was included in the India U-19 World Cup squad and was a part of the side that won the 2002 U-19 World Cup. Venugopal Rao established himself as a strong player in a match against England A in which, he contributed to South Zone’s victory by scoring an unbeaten 228 and helped his team chase down a target of 501, which was the fourth-highest successful First-class chase. As of 2008, Venugopal Rao has scored a total of 5153 runs at an average of 46.00 that includes 13 centuries and 23 half-centuries with a career best of 228 not out in First-class matches. He has also proved as an effective bowler by taking 51 wickets from 78 matches at an economy rate of 2.71 and his personal best is 4/34.
On April 3, 2007, Venugopal Rao made his domestic Twenty20 (T20) debut for the Andhra side in a match against Tamil Nadu. In 2008, Venugopal Rao signed with the Indian Premier League (IPL) side Deccan Chargers and made his debut for this side in a match against Kolkata Knight Riders on April 20, 2008. He scored his Twenty20 career best of 71 not out in a match against Kolkata Knight Riders at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on May 11, 2008. During the first season of this tournament, he made a total of 288 runs from 11 matches at an average of 36 that include two blistering half-centuries with a staggering strike rate of 137.14. Venugopal Rao also contributed with the ball by taking two wickets with a best bowling figure of 2/25 against Mumbai Indians.
