Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batter Rinku Singh's father, Khanchandra Singh, expressed his disappointment over his son's exclusion from the India squad for the T20 World Cup 2024.
The Board of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI) announced the 15-member squad for the showpiece, slated to take place in the West Indies and the USA on June 1st. Apart from inclusion of star players in the squad, Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shivam Dube, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav found their spots in the 15-member squad.
However, Rinku Singh's name was missing in the squad. Though the 26-year-old was included in the travelling reserves, but he will be added in the main squad if any of the players get injured or ruled out of the tournament.
Speaking to News24, Rinku Singh's father revealed that the his son was heartbroken when he informed his mother about not getting selected into the main squad for the T20 World Cup. Khanchandra added that we bought crackers hoping that we Rinku would be selected in the squad.
"We bought crackers and celebrating as we thought that Rinku would be in the Indian team XI for T20 World Cup. But Rinku called his mother & broke the news, he was heartbroken." Khanchandra said.
Many netizens rallied behind Rinku Singh after he was excluded from the India squad for T20 World Cup 2024, opining that the KKR star batter became the victim of favourtism in Indian Cricket. Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan even believed that Rinku should have been in the squad given his recent run of form in IPL 2024.
Irfan took his X handle (formerly Twitter) and wrote, "I think Rinku Singh’s recent past performance for Team India shouldn’t have been ignored."
Rinku Singh made his international debut for Team India in a T20I match against Ireland in August 2023. In T20I, Rinku has scored 356 runs, including two fifties, at an average of 89 and a strike rate of 176.23 in 15 matches. However, it was enough for him to be qualified for selection into the India squad.
In IPL 2024, Rinku Singh has scored 127 runs at an average of 20.50 and a strike rate of 150 in nine matches played so far. Rinku will be back in action when Kolkata Knight Riders take on Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on May 3, Friday.
