India’s star finisher Rinku Singh was in for a surprise as he was left out of India’s T20 World Cup squad on Tuesday. The 15-member squad, which was announced ahead of the May 1 deadline, did not feature the KKR star despite commendable and consistent performances from the star, barring in IPL 2024. Rinku’s exclusion serves as a stellar reminder of how Ambati Rayudu was left out of the World Cup 2019 despite faring extremely well prior to the event.
Earlier, InsideSport had predicted that Rinku could possibly miss out on securing a spot in the T20 World Cup squad.
How Rinku Singh met same fate as Ambati Rayudu’s fate
In 2023, Rinku amassed 262 runs in 12 T20Is after breaking into the Indian team following a stellar performance in IPL 2023. Considered to be in his prime form, the finisher scored 474 runs in 14 matches in that edition of the IPL.
However, in nine matches of IPL 2024 so far, Rinku Singh has managed to score just 123 runs while other players competing for the spot have fared way better. In his last 11 innings, the finisher has had scores of 38 (21), 37* (15), 22* (14), 31* (9), 46 (29), 6 (8), 68* (39), 14 (10), 16* (9), 9* (9), 69* (39).
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What happened to Ambati Rayudu in 2019?
Ambati Rayudu suffered a similar fate in 2019 as he was left out from India’s World Cup squad. Despite been given the chance on multiple occasions to prove himself as the perfect fit for the middle-order, he was left out of the side when it mattered the most.
Rayudu was overlooked for Vijay Shankar. In 2018 and 2019, Rayudu scored 392 and 247 runs respectively. He also enjoyed a stellar IPL season in 2019, where he was all but sure to seal a spot in the WC squad. However, the selectors had other plans. Rayudu’s scores in ODIs ahead of the World Cup in 2019 were 0, 24,13,47,40,0,90,13,18, 2.
Rayudu exclusion had caused furore among fans back in 2019, who went to slam the selectors led by MSK Prasad. Rayudu even went on to cryptically take a dig at Prasad, with his ‘3D’ tweet following the failure of Shankar who was chosen over him in the squad.
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