Jhuti ummeed mat do bechaaro ko’ – Fans react as Rinku Singh and Ruturaj Gaikwad likely to feature in India’s T20I squad for Ireland series

After getting ignored by the selectors in the upcoming T20I series against West Indies, young players like Rinku Singh and Ruturaj Gaikwad are likely to get featured in the Indian squad for the next T20I series against Ireland. After completing their tour to West Indies, India will take Green and White for a three-match T20I series.

Even after their splendid performances in IPL 2023, Rinku and Ruturaj have not been included in India’s T20I squad against the Caribbean side. However, Gaikwad got his maiden call for the Test series starting on July 12th. Rinku was the leading run-scorer for Kolkata Knight Riders in the recently ended season with 474 runs from 4 matches at an average of 59.25. While Gaikwad was the second leading run scorer for Chennai Super Kings with 590 runs in 16 matches at an average of 42.14.

Tilak Verma, Yashasvi Jaiswal received maiden India call.

Notably, the ODI and T20I squads for the West Indies tour were announced earlier. But the T20I squad was announced after Ajit Agarkar took charge as the new Chairman of the selection committee. All-rounder Hardik Pandya is set to lead India’s T20I side again after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were left out. Meanwhile, players like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Verma and Mukesh Kumar received their maiden T20I call for India.

Tilak and Jaiswal also had a great outing in IPL 2023 for their respective franchises. Jaiswal was amongst the leading run scorers of the season with 625 runs from 14 matches for Rajasthan Royals. While Tilak turned out to be a pivotal middle-order batter for Mumbai Indians with 323 runs from 11 innings at an average of 42.87. While Rinku and Gaikwad have missed out on the T20I squad, the source from the Indian Cricket Board confirmed that the players who missed out on the West Indies tour will be named in the squad for the Ireland series.

“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,” the source told Indian Express.