One of the notable misses for India in the series against Afghanistan was Rinku Singh. The southpaw has been a regular in recent T20I squads and has justified his selection whenever given the opportunity.
Former Indian cricketer Wasim Jaffer said it is “unfortunate” that Rinku has not been able to make the list.
“He has played very well in the IPL, and even recently, whether you talk about the Uttar Pradesh Premier League or the Duleep Trophy. Even though the latter is red-ball cricket. So, I feel Rinku Singh is unfortunate that he hasn’t been able to make his place in the team. But among all these players, I would say that, for Rinku Singh, it feels a little like he has been left out of the team for no real reason,” Jaffer said on his YouTube channel.
Jaffer also said that when all the players who are regulars return, someone has to make way, and it is Rinku in this case.
“I mean, it’s understandable because when all your players return, unfortunately, you have to make room for them. I feel a little bad for Rinku Singh because it doesn’t seem like he has done much wrong. To be honest, whenever he has got an opportunity, he has always done well, and he plays in very critical positions. But whenever he plays, his performances have been good.”
In addition to Rinku, Jaffer also spoke about Kuldeep Yadav, who is not part of the side.
“As for Kuldeep, again, I’ve said this so many times that it has become repetitive. But I feel he has gone out of favour for no reason, so I feel bad for him.”
India team: Shreyas Iyer [C], Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson [WK], Ishan Kishan [WK], Tilak Varma [VC], Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar*, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah*, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana*