India’s squad for the much-awaited ICC T20 World Cup 2024 was announced on Tuesday (April 30). Rohit Sharma will lead the Men in Blue in the showpiece event, scheduled to be played from June 1 to 29 in the United States and Caribbean.
While most of the names in the team were on the expected lines, the selectors gave a big surprise by not including Rinku Singh in the team. Not many expected the youngster to miss out after the kind of year he had in T20. The Uttar Pradesh star impressed everyone with his finishing ability as well as his ability to build the innings when the going is tough.
He had an impressive campaign in the IPL last year where he scored 474 runs with the help of four half-centuries. During the same season, Rinku Singh also hit Yash Dayal for five sixes in a row to achieve a miraculous victory for his team Kolkata Knight Riders.
It paved the way for his first India call-up and the left-handed batsman also began working in international cricket. In 15 T20Is so far, he has scored 356 runs at a staggering average of 89 and a strike rate of 176.
In his last T20I knock, he scored 69 runs off 39 balls and hit 25 runs off the last five balls against Afghanistan in January this year. However, his efforts were not enough for a place in the T20 World Cup squad as the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel decided not to pick him.
Why Rinku Singh was not chosen in the World Cup team?
Rinku Singh has become the talk of the town as the Indian cricket fraternity has been busy searching for the answer to his omission. Not only fans but also several former cricketers have expressed their surprise over the decision.
And although only the selectors and the team management know the reason, the Indian Express reported that Rinku Singh was lost because the team wanted more all-rounders in the team.
The report stated that for the last spot in the World Cup team, there was a three-way competition between Rinku Singh, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar. In the end, the selectors and the team management decided to go with Axar because of his ability to contribute with both the bat and the ball.