3 reasons why India dropping Rinku Singh for IND vs SA 2025 T20Is is a blunder

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the squad for the five-match T20I series against South Africa, a list which did not include Rinku Singh. After his rapid rise, and displacement to the bench, he now finds himself out of contention completely.

Rinku Singh had broke into the Indian side as a bona fide pinch hitter who can make an impact at any stage of the innings, particularly towards the back end. However, with time, his role with the team has faded, and now he finds himself with the task of making a comeback, despite his numbers, impact, and potential stating the opposite.

Considering that India only play five more T20Is after the South Africa home series, before the T20 World Cup unfurls, they will be keen on persisting with the same squad for the final phase of the build-up, unless they are forced to make a change. This does not bode well for Rinku Singh, who has been excluded after getting only a handful of opportunities in the first place.

India squad for T20I series against SA: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC)*, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar

On that note, let us take a look at three reasons why India dropping Rinku Singh for IND vs SA 2025 T20Is is a blunder.

#1 Team India are not tapping into Rinku Singh's form in their quest for depth and balance

Despite only warming the bench for India in the 2025 Asia Cup and the Australia tour, Rinku Singh has not let it affect his rhythm. There was no sign of rustiness when he turned up for Uttar Pradesh and smashed back to back hundreds in the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy.

While he had a poor start to the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign, he responded strongly with a timely 65-run knock against Madhya Pradesh. But all of the statements he is trying to make is falling on deaf ears as the team management view all-rounders with tunnel vision.

With India's desire to persist with three spinners, and three pacers, with a batting option at No.8 in Harshit Rana, there is no space for Rinku Singh to feature. With the top five and the wicket-keeping slot more or less sealed, the southpaw's chances look bleaker and bleaker with time.

Since the team management is not willing to compromise the sixth bowling option despite having part-time bowling options and proficient specialists, Rinku Singh is not even an afterthought, unfortunately, unless there is an injury crisis.

#2 India cannot keep solely relying on all-rounders to finish games, they need a specialist

Although the T20 World Cup is just a couple of months away, India still do not have clarity regarding their lower middle-order and finishing department. The wicket-keeper conundrum is still on, while the plethora of all-rounders continues to be stacked there.

As things stand, given the uncertainty between Sanju Samson and Jitesh Sharma, all-rounder Hardik Pandya is the only experienced finisher that India currently have in their T20I setup. Although the likes of Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, and Shivam Dube have shown flashes of brilliance, India cannot go into a contest relying on them to wreak havoc in the death overs.

At the end of the day, India need a specialist finisher, who has had enough experience batting in the death overs with success. Rinku Singh has a strike rate of 204.67 across the final four overs in T20 cricket, which is almost 50 figures more than Sundar and Axar, and 30 more than Dube.

Rinku's career death overs numbers are even better than Hardik Pandya, India's chief finisher at the moment, and only marginally behind Jitesh Sharma's.

Moreover, Rinku Singh has displayed versatility by batting across a wide variety of situations and conditions, which the all-rounders considerably lack. At a time when six-hitting and its frequency are a major currency in death overs batting, the left-handed batter hits a six every 6.58 balls.

That figure is far more impressive when compared against India's current middle order squad members, Hardik Pandya (7.71), Jitesh Sharma (6.83), Washington Sundar (14), Shivam Dube (7.92), and Axar Patel (12.3).

#3 Being made the scapegoat once again will wreck his confidence leading up to a crucial phase

The current string of events, unfortunately, comes across as a major deja vu for Rinku Singh. Two years before, after a stunning IPL 2023, and entry into international cricket, the southpaw was deemed a must-inclusion for the 2024 T20 World Cup.

Despite averaging 89 with a strike rate of 174 across his first 11 games, he was not selected for the tournament. Since then, his confidence and returns have never been the same. Not being selected for such a high-profile event despite not putting a foot wrong was understandably a tough pill to swallow.

To make matters worse, even after featuring in 20 matches in the Gautam Gambhir-Suryakumar Yadav regime, he has availed only 14 innings to showcase his batting, of which he has played over 30 deliveries just thrice.

For a player who already feels lost in the setup with a lack of clarity and opportunities, dropping him is the last nail that you can hammer in the coffin. The next 10 home T20Is should have been an avenue for India to figure out how Rinku Singh can fit into the combination without hampering balance and depth. Instead, it has taken a complete U-Turn, where he is not part of the plans at all.

Given the difficulty of their role, finishers are the breed who need to be protected the most to keep them confident and allow them to play their best game when the need comes. But India have comfortably axed him from their plans to go full-steam ahead with their all-rounder centric plan for the lower middle-order.