The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on April 30 announced the squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup set to be played in USA and West Indies. Among the major snubs from the team was Rinku Singh. The swashbuckling finisher was not picked in the 15-member India squad while he was kept in the list of reserves alongside Shubman Gill, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan. The idea of the selectors dropping Rinku surprised many former cricketers and experts of the game.
Rinku made his India debut in a T20I match against Ireland in 2023. So far, he has played 15 matches in the format scoring 356 runs at a strike rate of 176.24. The southpaw played his last T20I match for India in January 2024, against Afghanistan.
Former India cricketer Rohan Gavaskar was unhappy with the selection committee’s decision of dropping Rinku, while another ex-India player Virender Sehwag tried to understand the rationale behind the call.
“If IPL 2024 is the metric, where has Mohammed Siraj picked wickets for RCB? Suryakumar Yadav… he was always in my team, and he should be there in T20 World Cup too. But even he hasn’t performed (for MI),” said Rohan Gavaskar on Cricbuzz.
“Some players are going there on reputation. Like Suryakumar, his reputation is that he is an explosive hitter. Yes, he can have bad days. Rinku Singh is also like him, the difference is that he is young and Suryakumar is experienced. And Indian selectors have preferred experience. Rinku is young, he can play later too,” said Virender Sehwag.
“We said after the previous World Cup that Rohit and Virat won’t play in 2024, but this time, I’m sure they won’t play the next,” said Sehwag.
India squad for T20 World Cup 2024: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Hardik Pandya (Vice Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj.
Reserves –Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan
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