Rinku Singh shouldn’t be disheartened by his exclusion from India’s World T20 squad as it was pure tactical decision by team management to ask for an extra spinner taking pitches in the Caribbean into account, former India skipper Sourav Ganguly said on Friday. Ganguly feels the 26-year-old, who boasts of a 176-plus strike rate in 15 T20Is and plays the role of a finisher for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, may have missed out as India wanted to go with an “extra spinner” keeping in mind the spinning tracks in the West Indies.
“It’s West Indies. The wickets may be slow and assist spin so they (selectors) wanted to go with another spinner. Maybe because of that Rinku didn’t get an opportunity but it’s just the beginning for Rinku,” Ganguly said at the Trophy unveiling ceremony of the Bengal Pro T20 League.
India play their group stage matches in the USA, opening their campaign against Ireland on June 5. Super Eight onwards the tournament will be held in the Caribbean countries.
Ganguly expected India and Australia to dominate the tournament as they did in the 50-over World Cup last year.
“India and Australia the two best teams of the tournament. I’m sure they will do the same thing in the USA and the West Indies,” Ganguly said.
On the Indian squad, Ganguly said: “It’s a fabulous squad, they are all match winners. All 15 are good enough to be selected, I’m sure Rohit (Sharma) and Rahul (Dravid) will pick the best.”
Meanwhile all the eight franchises and their marquee players in the Bengal Pro T20 League were also announced. The inaugural edition of the league will take place at Eden Gardens and Jadavpur University Salt Lake Campus ground from June 11-28.
The Teams Kolkata Royal Tigers (areas: Kolkata & Hooghly) (marquee players: Abhishek Porel and Mita Paul).
Harbour Diamonds (North & South 24 Parganas) (Manoj Tiwary and Sukanya Panda).
Rashmi Medinipur Wizards (Medinipur and Jhargram) (Abhimanyu Easwaran & Richa Ghosh).
Servotec Siliguri Strikers (Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Kalimpong) (Akash Deep and Priyanka Bala).
Adamas Howrah Warriors (Howrah, Purulia and Bankura) (Anustup Majumdar and Dhara Gujjar).
Malda Sobisco Smashers (Dinajpur and Malda) (Mukesh Kumar & Rishita Basu).
Murshidabad King (Murshidabad and Nadia) (Sudeep Gharami and Deepti Sharma).
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