"We had brought sweets and crackers as well" - Rinku Singh's father opens up on son's exclusion from India's T20 World Cup squad
Indian cricketer Rinku Singh's father Khanchandra Singh gave an update on his son's reaction to not being named in India's 15-man squad for the T20 World Cup to be played in June later this year.
Rinku's father said that he had full faith in the southpaw being selected in the main squad and revealed that the family had also brought crackers and sweets to celebrate the occasion. However, it wasn't to be as Rinku has been named in the traveling reserves.
Speaking to Bharat 24, Khanchandra Singh also revealed that Rinku Singh had a conversation with his mother after being snubbed from the Indian squad. He said:
"We had a lot of hope that he will be named in the squad. We had brought sweets and crackers as well as we felt he will be a part of the eleven. Uska to dil toota hai aisi baat nai hai (it is not that he is heartbroken). He spoke to his mother and said that while he is not named in the 15, he is in the 18 and is going (to the T20 World Cup)"
India's T20 World Cup Squad: 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
Former cricketers speak in support of Rinku Singh
Several former cricketers have expressed their disappointment on Rinku Singh's exclusion and Ambati Rayudu is one of them. The former Indian batter questioned the selectors indirectly for not picking players on quality. He claimed that apart from Ravindra Jadeja, Rinku had been the only consistent finisher for India in the past two years.
Here's what Rayudu wrote on X:
"Rinku Singh’s omission clearly indicates stats rule over cricketing sense.. who in this selected Indian has been walking out in the 16 th and 17 th over in a t20 game in the last 2 years and playing fluently with a high strike rate and can win a game except Ravindra Jadeja.. he is a big miss.. quality should come before quantity and most importantly cricketing ability should come before likability on Instagram."
In just 15 T20Is for India, Rinku has a mind-boggling average of 89 and an outstanding strike rate of 176.23, making his exclusion even more baffling.