Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 2 : India skipper and Mumbai Indians opening batter Rohit Sharma interacted with Rinku Singh after the left-handed star batter's omission from the 15-player squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup.
On Tuesday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the squad for the marquee event, which will begin on June 1 in the USA and the West Indies.
The ace KKR finisher was excluded from the squad for the marquee event and was named as a travelling reserve, which left many fans as well as former cricketers baffled.
While most of India's squad picked itself, there were a few surprising calls, with the omission of Shubman Gill and Rinku prominent among them.
After addressing the media in a press conference at BCCI's headquarters, Rohit interacted with Rinku at the Wankhede Stadium ahead of MI's clash with KKR on Friday.
MI posted a video on X, in which Rinku was visibly in all smiles as Rohit approached the KKR star. In the next clip, Rohit was seen having a serious conversation with Rinku.
https://x.com/mipaltan/status/1786046063872184349
Rinku managed to make the reserve list after amassing 356 runs for India in 15 T20Is with an average of 89 and a strike rate of 176.24. He is not included in the ICC World T20 2024 squad.
During Rohit's press conference, chief selector Ajit Agarkar was also present alongside the Indian captain.
While addressing Rinku's omission, Agarkar called it one of the "toughest decisions" the selectors had to make. He went on to call the decision "unfortunate" for the 26-year-old hitter and claimed Rinku's exclusion was only due to the team's desire to choose four spinners.
"It's probably the toughest thing that we have had to discuss. He has done nothing wrong nor Shubman Gill for that matter. It's about the combination. Like Rohit said, we are not quite sure what conditions we will get. So, we wanted to have enough options. A couple of spinners were included in the squad...It's just unfortunate. I don't think it has anything to do with Rinku Singh. It is not his fault that he has missed out. It is more than the 15 that we felt...At the end of the day, you can only pick 15," Agarkar said.
Rohit also interacted with KKR team mentor Gautam Gambhir and skipper Shreyas Iyer.
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