“I was taken aback,” says Sunil Gavaskar on Rinku Singh’s removal from the T20 World Cup team

The likes of former Australia captain Aaron Finch and all-rounder Irfan Pathan were surprised that big-hitter Rinku Singh did not make the final India squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup in the Americas. However, the great Sunil Gavaskar explained it away by pointing to the left-handed batter’s dismal form in the current IPL.

The BCCI revealed on Tuesday a 15-man team for the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies in June. Shubman Gill, Avesh Khan, and Khaleel Ahmed, in addition to the hard-hitting middle-order batsman who has played 15 T20Is, will be kept in the reserves.

Pathan, one of the most outspoken ex-players after the news, said on ‘X’ that “Rinku’s recent past performance for Team India shouldn’t have been ignored.” It “surprised” former Australia white-ball captain Finch that the BCCI selectors included four spinners in the lineup instead of Rinku.

It astonished me that there were four spinners. “I only had two spinners and Rinku in there,” Finch said on Star Sports.

The legendary West Indian Ian Bishop also voiced his astonishment at Rinku’s absence, adding, “I believe Rinku Singh has accomplished enough in international cricket, if you’re talking about shocks. He maintains a spot in the 15 by averaging well over 60 or 70 in T20Is.

“So, the only thing that made my ears stand up was that. Thus, what I’m saying is that Rinku hasn’t been preferred—someone like Axar (Patel), the additional spinner,” Bishop told Star Sports.

However, Gavaskar believed that Rinku’s performance in the current IPL was a factor in his exclusion from the starting lineup.

“Perhaps his performance in this IPL season hasn’t been all that outstanding. “Maybe because he hasn’t had many opportunities, the selectors haven’t chosen him,” Gavaskar said to Sports Today.

He expressed his desire to have a player similar to T. Natarajan, a left-handed bowler, on the team headed to the World Cup.

“I was envisioning someone more akin to left-handed fast bowler T. Natarajan. Since he has been bowling so brilliantly, we believed he should have been in the squad. The former captain of India was certain that the team headed by Rohit Sharma would do well at the major tournament.

“I don’t know why, but there’s no denying that this Indian squad seems to be a very strong one. It has a ton of experience, some very powerful hitters, and a diverse bowling lineup,” he said.

Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Kuldeep Yadav are India’s four spinners going into the championship match, but they only have three fast bowlers with specializations. Gavaskar believes that all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who was selected as Rohit’s deputy on Tuesday, will fill in as the country’s fourth seamer.

“Maybe that explains why they (the selectors) chose four spin bowlers, since Hardik Pandya can bowl in addition to the fourth seam bowler. The surfaces in the West Indies will provide spinners a bit more assistance than fast bowlers.

“As we have seen in the IPL, the slower the deliveries, the harder it is for the batters to hit and that’s perhaps the reason why they have gone with an extra spinner,” Gavaskar said.

Shubman Gill’s “patchy” IPL performance made Gavaskar feel that he had too many problems, and the selectors only gave him a reserve player’s consideration.

The advantage that India has is its abundance of players. In fact, with a little bit of luck, that second squad you manage to assemble will be just as capable of winning this Cup.

“Well, it does happen sometimes, and it seems that Gill was one of those players who had to be left out. Once again, he has had inconsistent play in the previous several games. He had a great start to the IPL, but his play in the past several games has been inconsistent, costing GT wins. Gill scores and GT has been victorious. “Neither they nor he have been winning,” Gavaskar said.

After the Indian squad failed to create an impression in the previous two T20 World Cups, Gavaskar believed a shift in “attitude” and “approach” would guarantee the Rohit-led team would win the championship.

“There have been changes in attitude and approach, which we saw in the 50-over World Cup (last year in India), and that augurs well for this (T20) World Cup as well.”