Rinku Singh attributed his exclusion from the Duleep Trophy to his underwhelming performance with the bat for Uttar Pradesh in the last Ranji Trophy season.
Rinku was one of the noticeable names that missing from the four squads BCCI announced for the Duleep Trophy, starting from September 5.
“I didn’t perform that well (in the domestic season). I didn’t play as many matches in the Ranji Trophy, I played 2-3 matches. I wasn’t selected because I didn’t do well enough,” he told Sports Today.
In 2023-24 Ranji Trophy season, Rinku played three games for Uttar Pradesh, scored 128 runs at 42.66 with just one fifty. Overall,Rinku has a stellar first-class record, averaging 54.70 from 47 first-class matches.
When asked whether he has been seen as a T20 specialist, Rinku said: “No worries, I am happy with whatever chances I am getting. When I will be selected for ODIs or Tests, it will be a huge deal for me. Whatever I am getting to play right now, I am playing.”
Earlier this year, Rinku had also missed out on the T20 World Cup squad.
Duleep Trophy 2024 squads
Team A: Shubman Gill (c), Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kumar Kushagra, Shashwat Rawat
Team B: Abhimanyu Easwaran (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant, Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy*, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (wk)
Team C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), B Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Umran Malik, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Kamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (wk), Sandeep Warrier
Team D: Shreyas Iyer (c), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ishan Kishan (wk), Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (wk), Saurabh Kumar
*Nitish Kumar Reddy’s participation is subject to fitness.
