One of the biggest omission from India's squad for the T20 World Cup 2024 was Rinku Singh, who was groomed by the team management since 2023 Indian Premier League for the finisher's role. However, with India looking for an extra spinner for the ICC tournament, Rinku had to pay the price leaving experts and veteran cricketers enraged.
On Friday, the day after Rinku had a shot chat with India captain Rohit Sharma at the Wankhede Stadium on the sidelines of the preparations for the IPL 2024 match between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders, he had a chance to prove selectors wrong with with a big and impactful knock. And the KKR star did have the opportunity with the visitors struggling against the Mumbai attack to go four down inside the powerplay.
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Rinku did start off on a promising note as he smashed Hardik Pandya for two boundaries in three balls. However, the left-handed batter was dismissed by Piyush Chawla in his first ball after he took on the wrong'un a bit too early in search for a quick single as he induced a false shot and chipped it back to the bowler. The dismissal left KKR mentor Gautam Gambhir utterly disgruntled in the dug out.
IPL 2024, MI vs KKR Live Score
‘Not picking Rinku Singh was the toughest…’
{{/usCountry}}Rinku did start off on a promising note as he smashed Hardik Pandya for two boundaries in three balls. However, the left-handed batter was dismissed by Piyush Chawla in his first ball after he took on the wrong'un a bit too early in search for a quick single as he induced a false shot and chipped it back to the bowler. The dismissal left KKR mentor Gautam Gambhir utterly disgruntled in the dug out.
IPL 2024, MI vs KKR Live Score
‘Not picking Rinku Singh was the toughest…’
{{/usCountry}}Speaking to the media on Thursday at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai, chief selector Ajit Agarkar revealed that excluding Rinku from the T20 World Cup squad was the most difficult thing for the selectors. He explained that the reason was down to getting tghe combination right in the bowling unit which led to Rinku missing the cut.
“(Not picking Rinku Singh) the toughest thing that we have to discuss. Rinku hasn’t done anything wrong, nor has Shubman Gill. It's about the combinations. We are not quite sure about the conditions. So we wanted to have enough (bowling) options. We have picked a couple of wrist spinners, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, to give Rohit more options. There's Axar (Patel), a bowling all-rounder. It's just unfortunate," Agarkar said.
Rinku has been slotted into the T20 World Cup reserve list along with Shubman Gill, Avesh Khan and Khaleel Ahmed.
"I don't think it has anything to do with him. It's not Rinku Singh's fault that he has missed out. With two keepers who are both terrific batters, there's already an extra batter sitting. So we thought of having an extra bowling option. Rinku is a travelling reserve; that’s how close he was, it's a little tough on him but at the end of the day, you can only pick 15," Agarkar added.