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A day after Virat Kohli pulled out of the first two Tests against England due to undisclosed personal reasons, Rinku Singh was added to the India A squad for the second unofficial Test against England Lions. Connecting these two developments may seem a bit over the top, but there appears to be clear planning from the selection committee to keep their options open. “The Men’s Selection Committee has added Rinku Singh to India ‘A’ squad for the second four-day match against England Lions to be played in Ahmedabad from 24th January,” BCCI said in a release on Tuesday.
Right at the end of the unusually long statement released to announce Kohli’s absence from the Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam Tests, the BCCI said that the men’s selection committee led by former pacer Ajit Agarkar would announce a replacement for the star batter “soon.”
That Rinku Singh is now a contender is quite evident. BCCI had announced India A squads for the second and third four-day games on January 19. They made a few changes to the team that drew the first match. Wicketkeeper Kumar Kushagra earned his maiden India call-up for the second and third matches as KS Bharat and Dhruv Jurel would join the senior Indian team, Washington Sundar came back into the red-ball scheme of things and pacer Arshdeep Singh and left-arm spinner Shams Mulani were named for the third match. Rinku too was added to the squad but for the third match only.
Now that the left-hander has also been named for the second tour match, it is a clear indication that the selectors are interested in trying him out in red-ball cricket.
And Why shouldn’t they? Rinku has had a great start to his international career, albeit in T20Is – he averages 89 and has a strike rate of 176 in 15 matches. The left-hander from Uttar Pradesh has impressed one and all with his temperament in some of the most difficult situations. Besides, the 26-year-old is quite an accomplished first-class cricketer. He has amassed 3109 runs in 44 first-class matches at an average of 57.57 with the help of seven centuries and 20 half-centuries.
Rinku obviously is not higher than Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz Khan in the pecking order as far as red-ball cricket is concerned. The former smashed 151 in the first match against England Lions and the latter was been the most prolific scorer in domestic cricket for the last three seasons.
The chances of Kohli’s replacement being named before the Test are slim. In India’s XI, it is most likely to be KL Rahul at No.4 and Shreyas Iyer at No.5 with KS Bharat taking the gloves followed by the spin-bowling all-rounders. It is after the first Test, that a replacement is most likely to be announced. And the India A vs England Lions four-day match starting a day before the India-England Test will most certainly play a crucial role.
India ‘A’ squad for the 2nd multi-day match: Abhimanyu Easwaran (Captain), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Tilak Varma, Kumar Kushagra, Washington Sundar, Sourabh Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Tushar Deshpande, Vidwath Kaverappa, Upendra Yadav, Akash Deep, Yash Dayal, Rinku Singh
India ‘A’ squad for the 3rd multi-day match: Abhimanyu Easwaran (Captain), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Kumar Kushagra, Washington Sundar, Shams Mulani, Arshdeep Singh, Tushar Deshpande, Vidwath Kaverappa, Upendra Yadav, Akash Deep, Yash Dayal
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