T20 World Cup 2024: Axar Patel the reason behind Rinku Singh's absence from World Cup squad: Report

The India squad for the highly-anticipated ICC T20 World Cup 2024 was announced on Tuesday (April 30). Rohit Sharma will be leading the Men in Blue in the marquee event, scheduled to be played from June 1 to 29 in the United States and the Caribbeans.

While most of the names in the squad were on the expected lines, the selectors sprung a huge surprise by not including Rinku Singh in the squad. Not many were expecting the youngster to miss out after the kind of year he has had in the T20s. The Uttar Pradesh star impressed one and all with his finishing abilities as well as his ability to build the innings when the situation is tough.

He had a stunning campaign in the IPL last year where he scored 474 runs with the help of four half-centuries. During the same season, Rinku Singh had also famously hit Yash Dayal for five straight sixes to pull off a miraculous win for his team Kolkata Knight Riders.

It paved the way for his maiden India call-up and the left-handed batsman hit the ground running in international cricket as well. In 15 T20Is so far, he has scored 356 runs at a staggering average of 89 and a strike-rate of 176.

In his last T20I knock, he smashed 69 runs off 39 balls while hitting 25 runs off the last five balls against Afghanistan in January this year. However, his efforts were not enough for a place in the T20 World Cup squad as the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel decided against picking him.

Why was Rinku Singh not picked in the World Cup squad?

Rinku Singh has become the talk of the town as the Indian cricket fraternity has been busy searching for the answer to his omission. Not only the fans but several former cricketers have also expressed their surprise over the decision.

And while only the selectors and the team management know the reason behind it, the Indian Express has reported that Rinku Singh missed out because the team wanted more allrounders in the squad.

The report stated that for the final spot in the World Cup squad, there was a three-way competition between Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, and Washington Sundar. In the end, the selectors and the team management decided to go with Axar because of his ability to contribute with both bat and ball.