Rinku Singh and Tilak Varma were both among the pick of the lot during IPL 2023 season (Twitter Image)
After Rinku Singh didn’t find a place in India’s T20I squad for the West Indies tour, the 25-year-old became a major talking point on social media
Rinku Singh’s omission from India’s T20I squad for the upcoming five-match series against West Indies became a major talking point on social media after the BCCI announced India’s squad for the Caribbean tour.
The middle-order batter had a stellar IPL 2023 season having scored 474 runs whilst averaging at 59.25 at a strike rate of 149.53. He was arguably KKR’s most impactful player having played a significant role in taking his side home with the bat.
On his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra believed that Rinku Singh would have been the better option as opposed to Tilak Varma. This is mainly due to the top order having batters like Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Sanju Samson. Chopra believed that rather than sending Tilak Varma to bat after Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh could have been brought in due to his experience in successfully finishing games off for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL.
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“If the BCCI were planning to find someone to bat after Hardik Pandya then Rinku Singh could have been a better option unless Tilak Varma will play at number 3,” said Chopra on his YouTube channel.
In arguably one of the heists of the season, the 25-year-old batter managed to lead KKR to a famous win having scored 31 runs off the final over against the Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. The batter went berserk as he scored 5 consecutive sixes in the last 5 balls of the final over.
He even got massive praise from the West Indies’s legend, Ian Bishop which has been evident in his Twitter handle as well.
Appreciation tweet today for Arshdeep Singh – Nitish Rana – Dre Russ – Varun Chakravarty and my guy Rinku Singh👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻.— Ian Raphael Bishop (@irbishi) May 9, 2023
On the team selection for India’s tour to the West Indies, Chopra was surprised to see Ruturaj Gaikwad not on the team sheet. But due to the number of openers the side already has and Jaiswal being a left-hander might have given him the edge.
Without the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the bowling unit is lacking in terms of experience according to the former Indian opener.
But Chopra believes the likes of Arshdeep Singh should be given more chances. The selection of Umran Malik also makes sense to him as the commentator believes that Malik can be used in the middle-overs as he brings his raw pace as an X-Factor to the side.