Allrounder Shivam Dube was selected for his hitting ability but he has bowled only one over in 11 innings in IPL 2024•BCCI
India’s decision to pick Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson as the two wicketkeepers ahead of KL Rahul was to do with their ability to bat in the middle order.
“KL is a terrific player, we all know that” chairman of selectors Agarkar said. “The thing is we were looking at guys batting in the middle order, and at the moment KL is batting at the top.”
When it was pointed out that Samson is batting at No. 3 for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2024, Agarkar said: “We feel Sanju has the ability to come down the order, if need be, Rishabh has been batting at five-six. That was more the thinking, about the slots we needed. These two were better at this point. Guys who spend a bit more time in the later part of the innings at the World Cup, that was the thinking.”
After suffering a severe car accident in December 2022, Pant made a successful comeback in IPL 2024, scoring 398 runs in his first 11 innings for Delhi Capitals at a strike rate of 158.56, and proving his wicket-keeping skills were back to their best. Samson has 385 runs in nine innings for Royals, at a strike rate of 161.08.
Rinku Singh’s exclusion was the “toughest” decision India’s selectors had to make while picking the squad.
“He [Rinku] has done nothing wrong, nor has Shubman Gill. It’s just the combinations,” Agarkar said. “We’re not sure of the conditions we’ll get [in USA] and we wanted to have enough [bowling] options.
“We had a couple of wristspinners to give Rohit more options, I don’t think it’s anything to do with Rinku. It’s not his fault that he missed out, it’s more the 15 we felt we needed, with two keepers who are both terrific batters, we will have an extra batter sitting out. We got to have another bowling option, but he’s still one of the traveling substitutes. That’s how close he was, but we can only take 15.”
Rinku has played 15 T20Is for India, scoring 356 runs at a strike rate of 176.23. However, he’s had a quiet IPL 2024: 123 runs off 82 balls in eight innings at a strike rate of 150.
Shashank Kishore is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo