India’s 15-man roster for the T20I series against South Africa was released Wednesday , with the hosts leaving out Rinku Singh. His omission has raised many eyebrows, considering the southpaw did not bat during the Australia tour and just played one game in the Asia Cup. Rinku’s last solid middle-order hit came in a T20I against England at home in February 2025.
He bats lower down the order and has not batted in six of his last 17 short-form outings for India. Rinku also only managed one fifty and a score of 30 throughout this time period. Even in the four matches in which he went unbeaten, he failed to score 11 runs (he faced a maximum of 14 balls in those games) and struggled to raise the ante.
Rinku Singh is also struggling for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy
In other encounters, he failed to reach double digits and was also eliminated early. Rinku’s performance in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy has similarly been subpar, with only one score of greater above fifty in four matches. His other three encounters yielded four, one, and fourteen.
Rinku Singh’s scores in the last 10 T20I innings (when he had the opportunity to bat)
Even though the BCCI or selectors have not stated a specific reason for removing Rinku Singh, it is primarily owing to his form in recent innings and domestic play. On the other hand, one could argue that the selectors are allowing him to play domestic cricket to rediscover his form, given he would most likely be on the bench during the T20I series against South Africa.
With the T20 World Cup approaching, Rinku will need to recover his form quickly in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy to re-enter the picture.
There is also a chance that the BCCI will give Rinku Singh a break for personal reasons, although based on his recent figures, his form is equally poor in the shortest version of the game.
India’s squad for T20I series vs South Africa
Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar
