Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], May 4 (ANI): Former India captain Sourav Ganguly believes hard-hitter Rinku Singh’s omission from India’s 15-player ICC T20 World Cup squad comes down to the addition of a fourth spinner.
In the press conference on Thursday, India skipper Rohit Sharma stated that he wanted four spinners in the 15-player squad. He kept his cards close to his chest by not revealing the reason behind it for the moment, but it was clear that there was a plan of action behind the decision.
While many cricketers backed Rinku to feature in the squad, India decided to name the Kolkata Knight Riders star as a travelling reserve. Rinku barely managed to make the reserve list after amassing 356 runs for India in 15 T20Is with an average of 89 and a strike rate of 176.24.
While giving his take on Rinku being snubbed from the squad, Ganguly backed the 26-year-old by offering him words of encouragement.
“I think Rinku missed out because they wanted to go with another spinner. But Rinku is in standby, so fingers crossed. It is just the beginning of Rinku’s career. He will play a lot for India. I think he should not be disheartened with this,” Ganguly told reporters.
While talking about the overall selection, Ganguly showered praise on the management and captain Rohit for naming a “strong team” for the marquee event.
“I think this is one of the fairest teams I have seen. I am not saying other teams are not fair. I think the selectors and Rohit have done a fantastic job in picking this side. But I think this is a very strong team, solid team,” he added.
Earlier on Thursday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief selector Ajit Agarkar called Rinku’s omission one of the “toughest decisions” the selectors had to make and called the decision “unfortunate” for the 26-year-old hitter, claiming that Rinku’s exclusion was only down to the team’s desire to choose four spinners.
“It’s probably the toughest thing that we have had to discuss. He has done nothing wrong nor Shubman Gill for that matter. It’s about the combination. Like Rohit said, we are not quite sure what conditions we will get. So, we wanted to have enough options. A couple of spinners were included in the squad…It’s just unfortunate. I don’t think it has anything to do with Rinku Singh. It is not his fault that he has missed out. It is more than the 15 that we felt…At the end of the day, you can only pick 15,” Agarkar added.
India are placed in Group A of the ICC tournament alongside arch-rivals Pakistan, Ireland, Canada and co-hosts USA.
India will begin their T20 World Cup campaign against Ireland on June 5 at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York, followed by the marquee clash against Pakistan on June 9 at the same venue. India will then play the USA and Canada on June 12 and 15 respectively.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), 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. (ANI)
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