As the Board of Control for Cricket in Inda (BCCI) announced the 15-man India squad for the T20 World Cup 2024, there was no place for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) star Rinku Singh. The young middle-order batter wasn’t in explosive form in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, playing only as an ‘Impact Player’ in most matches. But, as far as his form for Team India was concerned, Rinku had hardly put a foot wrong in the 2 ODIs and 15 T20Is he had played. Yet, the selectors had to go with other options, leaving Rinku only as a Reserve Player for the showpiece event. As the cricket world and fans sympathised with Rinku, KKR co-owner Shah Rukh Khan was spotted accompanying him alone on the way to Mumbai.

Shah Rukh, who has become one of Rinku’s biggest fans, having witnessed his heroics with the bat for KKR over the last couple of seasons, seemed to be ensuring that the batter doesn’t feel alone in these testing times. Here’s the video:

Shah Rukh Khan along with Rinku Singh on the way to Mumbai. [Viral Bhayani]

– SRK is always with his players in tough times pic.twitter.com/GS46CJm72b

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) April 30, 2024

Rinku Singh a ‘Victim’ of Impact Player rule.

The ‘Impact Player’ rule, which has made IPL contests quite literally a “12-a-side affair”, has dealt a raw deal to power-hitter Rinku Singh who couldn’t make the Indian main squad for T20 World Cup as he simply did not have enough game time to his credit.

The 26-year-old Aligarh left-hander, who captured the cricketing world’s imagination with five sixes in an over during the previous IPL, made way for Shivam Dube in the main national squad while his name ended up being among the reserves.

Dube got in thanks to more game time for Chennai Super Kings during the first 10 games of the league.

Those who were privy to the selection meeting held in Ahmedabad on Tuesday unanimously agreed that Rinku became an easy omission for the panel because he couldn’t be fitted alongside Hardik Pandya and Dube in the same 15.

“No doubt, Rinku paid the price for the Impact Player Rule. He is plain and simple unlucky. Hardik might be in poor form but he is still India’s best seam bowling all-rounder and it would have been a risk dropping him considering he is the only one who has bowled,” a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

So how did the Impact Player Rule become Rinku’s undoing? Kolkata Knight Riders treated Rinku as a finisher and he never got a chance to bat in the top five. In eight innings before selection, he played merely 82 balls, which is just about 10 balls per innings.

The two Iyers — Venkatesh and skipper Shreyas — along with Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who is anything but a power-hitter got a majority of the overs, leaving Rinku with very little to do in the end.

With PTI inputs