Rinku Singh will fly to Ireland for the three T20I series against Ireland to be played on August 18, 20 and 23. The non selection of Singh, who had a remarkable IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders, for the upcoming West Indies tour had created ire across Indian cricket. However, the selection committee wanted not to throw a young side against West Indies.
Instead, they wanted to try everyone series by series. At the same time, they want players to be fresh ahead of a long season. “Rinku and other players who did well in the IPL will fly to Ireland as the selection committee doesn’t want to try everyone at one stage. There are seven players of the Indian ODI team who are not going to play T20 as those players are key for us going ahead as they will be playing Asia Cup in late August,” a BCCI source said.
Players like Singh, Ruturaj Gaikwad will be flown for the Ireland series. With the Asian Games line-up in mind, the selection committee decided to try players on a phase by phase basis.
The BCCI selection committee has asked the board to have more India A tours going ahead and fringe players will be tried there before being given a rope in the senior Indian team. The BCCI is in talks with a few boards to have A tours.
It was the first meeting held by Ajit Agarkar, who took over as chief selector on Tuesday. Agarakar brings a fresh perspective on T20 cricket having been part of the squad that won the inaugural ICC World T20 in South Africa in 2007.
The selection committee picked Yashasvi Jaiswal and Tilak Varma for the T20I squad. Jaiswal had impressed everyone with his exploits in the IPL as well as Ranji Trophy in recent times, but proved in the 2023 IPL that his game has gone to another level as he took apart many a big-name bowler.
Shubman Gill is the only player in the group who is a fixture in the Test XI as of now, regardless of conditions and venue. The batting group, which includes Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan as the two wicket-keeping options, will be expected to go after the bowling from ball one.
