Hyderabad: Star India batter Rinku Singh has opened up on his snub from the upcoming Duleep Trophy 2024, which marks the beginning of India's red-ball domestic cricket of the season. The Duleep Trophy will commence from September 5 with India A taking on India B and India C squaring off against India D.
Barring some senior players including captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah, the majority of the contracted players were selected in the four squads in the tournament.
Rinku Singh has already established himself as a regular in T20I cricket but has yet to get a chance in the longer formats of the game. His sensible knock against Afghanistan in the third T20I led to the discussion that he can be an exceptional test player as well. However, despite him being consistent in the shortest format, he was not given a chance to feature in the prestigious Duleep Trophy as the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee decided not to include him in any of the squads.
In an interview with Sportstak, Rinku Singh said, "Nothing...I didn't perform that well (in the domestic season). I didn't play many matches in the Ranji Trophy...I played 2-3 matches. I wasn't selected because I didn't play that well. I might get selected for next-round matches."
The 26-year-old, who plays for Uttar Pradesh in the domestic circuit, has amassed 3,173 runs in the 47 first-class matches, averaging 54.70 at an impressive strike rate of 71.59 including seven centuries and 20 fifties. He has also rolled his arm over in round 21 innings, bowling 522 deliveries and has claimed a total of six wickets.
In his most recent red-ball outing, the southpaw managed to score only 26 runs off 33 deliveries in UP's clash against Andhra in February 2024.