While around 60 Indian players will be in New Zealand over the next month for a Test, ODI, and T20I series, as well as three red-ball games of India-A,
one player who is missing from the list entirely is Rinku Singh. The star batter has once again been left out of the T20I side for the tour, while he has also failed to make the India-A squad despite constantly making runs in domestic cricket. So far, he has scored centuries in both matches of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season for Uttar Pradesh despite the rest of the batting unit struggling. Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra questioned the selectors for the left-hander's exile from the Indian team. He pointed out that despite being typecast as a white-ball specialist, he has a remarkable record in red-ball cricket. "Rinku Singh, my bro, how many runs should he score? He has scored four centuries in his previous six innings. The entire team got out, but the guy was standing alone on 118. I saw a list, I think it was on Cricbuzz, of the players with the highest First-class average with a minimum of 50 innings. Sir Don Bradman is at the top. Sarfaraz Khan's name is also there," said Chopra in a video on his YouTube channel. "Rinku Singh has an average of 61.33 in 78 innings, and that begs a question. Are we doing the right thing with Rinku Singh? He has been branded. Sometimes we brand and label a guy - that he is a white-ball player, and he isn't getting full opportunities there as well. In my opinion, he was also treated wrongly after the World Cup," he added. Chopra claimed that Rinku has done nothing wrong to be dropped and claimed that there is an opening for him in the Test team but his efforts are not being noticed by the selectors. "He hadn't done anything wrong. You used to make him bat down the order. He did whatever he was asked to do. The guy scored runs whenever he got to bat up the order. After that, you suddenly left him out, and now he is out only. Others are coming in and playing, but that guy is sitting out only. "Then he plays First-class cricket and scores so many runs that you should notice, but you are not noticing, and I wonder why. There was an era when there was no place in the middle order. However, when I see the Indian Test team now, I feel a spot can open up at any time," Chopra stated. "You have two openers - KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Devdutt Padikkal/Sai Sudharsan is at No. 3, Shubman Gill at No. 4, Rishabh Pant at No. 5, and Dhruv Jurel at No. 6. Who is the seventh? We are not grooming anyone. We sent Sarfaraz Khan just now, but he wasn't played. We don't even think about Rinku Singh. I think it is not right," he concluded.
Disclaimer: This article summarises a report by Aakash Chopra. While Times Now has verified the public data presented, the interpretations of 'intent' remain those of the creator.
