"Cricketing ability should come before likability on Instagram"- Ambati Rayudu slams Rinku Singh's exclusion from India's T20 WC squad

Former Indian batter Ambati Rayudu expressed his disappointment over Rinku Singh being left out of India's T20 World Cup 2024 squad despite showing incredible prowess in finishing games.

Rinku has played just 15 T20Is for the Men in Blue, but with an average of 89 and a strike rate of 176.23, he has been the dependable player for them on most occasions. Rayudu claimed that apart from Ravindra Jadeja, India didn't have a reliable finisher and that Rinku had to be a part of the squad.

Ambati Rayudu took to X (formerly Twitter) and indirectly took a dig at the selectors for choosing reputation over quality while selecting the T20 World Cup squad. Here's what he wrote:

"Rinku Singh’s omission clearly indicates stats rule over cricketing sense.. who in this selected Indian has been walking out in the 16 th and 17 th over in a t20 game in the last 2 years and playing fluently with a high strike rate and can win a game except Ravindra Jadeja.. he is a big miss.. quality should come before quantity and most importantly cricketing ability should come before likability on Instagram."

Probably no one apart from Ambati Rayudu would know better about what Rinku might be feeling after the snub as the right-hander's exclusion from the 2019 World Cup squad had seen a similar uproar among fans and eyebrows being raised.

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Tom Moody on logic behind India leaving Rinku Singh out

Former Australian all-rounder Tom Moody tried to find the rationale behind Rinku's exclusion. He explained India wanted to fill their team with all-rounders and quality spinners and that brought a situation where they could select only one between Shivam Dube and Rinku.

Claiming that Dube pipped Rinku because of his bowling, Moody told ESPNCricinfo:

"The way I see it, it had nothing to do with form, it had everything to do with the fact that Dube can bowl. If Rinku Singh could bowl, if both were identical cricketers, left-hand batters who could bowl part-time medium pace, he would be in that squad."

India can still make changes to their final 15-member squad until May 25 as per the ICC guidelines. It will be interesting to see if Rinku Singh can produce something special in IPL 2024 to get into the squad before the cut-off date.