Rinku, hang in there!

Much to the dismay of fans the exclusion of flamboyant allrounder Rinku Singh who captured the cricketing worlds imagination with five sixes in an over during the previous IPL made way for Shivam Dube in the main national squad for T20 World Cup while his name ended up being among the reserves Dube got in thanks to more game time for Chennai Super Kings during the first 10 games of the leagueThose who were privy to the selection meeting held in Ahmedabad on Tuesday unanimously agreed that Rinku became an easy omission for the panel because he couldnt be fitted alongside Hardik Pandya and Dube in the same 15No doubt Rinku paid the price for the Impact Player Rule He is plain and simple unlucky Hardik might be in poor form but he is still Indias best seam bowling allrounder and it would have been a risk dropping him considering he is the only one who has bowled a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymityMeanwhile this is how the Internet reacted to his absenceFeeling sad for Rinku Singh Shouldve been in the squad of 15 The form of the fast bowlers except Bumrah is a huge cause for concernmdash Zucker Doctor DoctorLFC April 30 2024HOW THE HELL IS RINKU SINGH IN THE RESERVES CAN WE FORGET ANOTHER WORLD CUPmdash Sameer Allana HitmanCricket April 30 2024With an average of 89 and a strike rate of 17624 its a shame if you cant pick such a power hitter like Rinku singh in your teammdash Vipin Tiwari Vipintiwari952_ April 30 2024Call it sheer bad luck but there really is more to it As of now The 26yearold Aligarh lefthander only has IPLs Impact Player Rule to blame HowHis IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders treated him as a finisher and naturally he never got a chance to bat in the top five In eight innings before selection he played merely 82 balls which is just about 10 balls per innings The two Iyers Venkatesh and skipper Shreyas along with Angkrish Raghuvanshi who is anything but a powerhitter got a majority of the overs leaving Rinku with very little to do in the endAlso ReadWait for the knives to be outIn contrast Chennai Super Kings and their shrewd tactician Mahendra Singh Dhoni have been making optimum use of Dube ever since he came in during the 2021 season Dube has got to play 203 balls in nine games so far for CSK Thats around 23 balls per game 13 more than Rinku which enabled him to muscle 26 sixes apart from 24 foursRinku didnt even get his fair share of batting on tracks where Raghuvanshi and the Iyers consumed more deliveries His strike rate of 176 in 15 games for India till January 2024 which included two fifties has not been enough to fetch him a spot in the main squadJust like Ambati Rayudus exclusion was one of the most unfortunate decisions before the 2019 ODI World Cup one can only hope that Rinkus omission from the main squad isnt a harakiri in the end With Rinku being a part of the travelling reserves he has a chance of getting into the 15 in case any of the first team members get injuredAlso till May 23 selectors wont need any reason to change the squad if they feel its necessaryWith inputs from agencies