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Ashish Nehra, the former Indian cricketer, believes that Rinku Singh is a contender for inclusion in India’s T20 World Cup squad. But, at the same time, the 44-year-old also spoke about how the left-handed batter has to fight for a spot in the squad with the likes of Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, and Shreyas Iyer in particular.
During the ongoing five-match T20I series against Australia, Rinku Singh has performed exemplary well in the middle order to ensure India gets quick runs in the latter stages of the innings. The first T20I in Visakhapatnam saw the 26-year-old score a crucial 22 off 14, staying at the crease till the very end, helping the Indian cricket team chase down the 209 off the last ball.
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In the second T20I from Thiruvananthapuram, Rinku Singh smashed 31 off 9 with four fours and two maximums to take India to 235/4. Meanwhile, when India was in some trouble during the fourth T20I in Raipur, he put together a highly impressive innings of 46 off 29 to make sure that the Indian cricket team reached a competitive total of over 170, which the bowlers managed to defend successfully.
This led to Ashish Nehra, the current head coach of the Gujarat Titans in the IPL, speaking at length to JioCinema about Rinku Singh’s exploits in the series with the T20 World Cup 2024 just seven months away. He was quoted as saying by the Times of India, “There is no doubt that Rinku Singh is a contender for inclusion in India’s T20 World Cup squad. But the World Cup is still far away and the spot he’s fighting for has many challengers. You can look at Jitesh Sharma (the wicketkeeper-batter) and Tilak Varma. We’ll have to discuss the positions where Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya will play.”
Rinku Singh has put everyone under pressure, says Ashish Nehra
In his chat with JioCinema, before the fifth T20I between India and Australia is scheduled to go down on Sunday, December 3, at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Ashish Nehra stated that the consistent performances from Rinku Singh have put the Indian players vying for the middle order spot under pressure.
He said, “So we have to see how many spots are available in the 15-member squad. But one thing is sure, he has opened everyone’s eyes and put everyone under pressure. But there’s still a lot of time to go. The trip to South Africa is coming up, followed by the IPL.”
