India's captain Rohit Sharma and chief selector Ajit Agarkar attended the press conference to address India's T20 World Cup squad announcement on May 2 (Thursday) at the BCCI Headquarters in Mumbai. As expected they were asked about Rinku Singh not finding a place in the squad despite averaging 89 and striking at 176 in his 15-match T20I career so far.
Responding to the same, Agarkar revealed that it was just unfortunate that the young left-hander couldn't make it. He also stated that Rinku did nothing wrong as he was in exceptional form playing for India ever since making his debut in August last year.
Agarkar also stated that they are unsure about the conditions on offer in the West Indies and the USA and hence, they wanted to round up the squad with as many options for the captain Rohit. He also noted that the decision would've been tough to accept for Rinku but highighted that he is part of the travelling reserves as well.
"It was the toughest thing we had to discuss. He has done nothing wrong. It's again the combinations like Rohit said we are not quite sure what conditions we will get. So we wanted to try and have enough options. So there are couple of wrist spinners that were included in the squad. It's just unfortunate. I don't think it has anything to do with Rinku Singh. It's not his fault that he has missed out. He is still one of the travelling reserves but that's how close he was. It's a little bit tough on him. But at the end of the day, you can only pick 15," Agarkar said.
India squad for T20 World Cup 2024: 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
