IPL 2023: Would like to see Rinku Singh in the Indian team, says Harbhajan Singh

Former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh wants Rinku Singh to be selected for the Indian team in T20I cricket. After impressing in IPL 2022, Singh continued the good show in IPL 2023 while playing for Kolkata Knight Riders.

The left-hander played another good knock of 54 runs off just 43 balls with the help of four fours and three sixes against Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Sunday.

Rinku added a crucial alliance of 99 runs with his skipper Nitish Rana to help his team get close to the target of 145 runs before he was run out. Rana also scored an unbeaten knock of 57 runs in the run-chase.

The southpaw was awarded Player of the Match for his fine knock. Singh has performed consistently in the ongoing season and he has been knocking at the selection doors.

Singh is KKR’s highest run-getter of the ongoing season as he has amassed 407 runs in 13 matches at an average of 50.88 and a strike rate of 143.31.

Harbhajan Singh said on Star Sports, “Nitish Rana played a captain’s knock and Rinku Singh gave him support. Rinku has emreged as a star from this IPL and his bat has done all the talking. I would like to see him in the Indian team and hope that he gets a chance. He is ready for the shorter format and is also a brilliant fielder.

In fact, this was KKR’s first win in Chennai in 11 years. Harbhajan added it is tough to beat CSK at their home den but KKR’s spinners did a fantastic job in restricting the home team to 144 runs.

Sunil Narine was the pick of the bowlers as he returned with impressive figures of 2-15 in his quota of four overs whereas Varun Chakravarthy also bagged two wickets.

“It’s tough to beat CSK at home, but that’s what KKR did by taking good spinners. There is no doubt that they have a strong spin attack, including Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine and Suyash Sharma. In Chennai, it’s all about spinners of which team performed better. It was evident that the KKR spinners were better than the CSK spinners,” he stated.

The Turbanator concluded by saying the home team was 15-20 runs short of a par score against KKR.

“CSK knew that they were 15-20 runs short because if CSK had scored in the range of 165-170, they could have taken the game forward very efficiently. The bowlers also get a bit of margin of errors,” Harbhajan added.

Kolkata Knight Riders will play their last league stage match against Lucknow Super Giants at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Saturday.