“Who else will you drop really?” - Mohammad Kaif opens up on India’s T20I squad vs South Africa

Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif has backed the Indian selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, for dropping Rinku Singh to accommodate the star all-rounder Hardik Pandya in the Indian T20I squad for the forthcoming five-match South Africa series.

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Speaking exclusively on his YouTube channel, Kaif asserted that there is no other player who could be dropped from the current Indian T20I squad apart from Rinku Singh, who couldn’t make it to the playing XI in a majority of the games recently.

"There is no one you could have removed with Hardik coming back. Sanju Samson in India during the World Cup will be solid. Jitesh has come in now. Even in the Asia Cup, Rinku did not play all the games. He was not in your XI anyway. The bowlers are doing well. There are many all-rounders. There was only one player who could have made way for Hardik to come in, and that was Rinku. There is no other reason. Rinku may feel it is unfair, but I am with the selectors here. Who else will you drop really?" he said on his YouTube channel.

Furthermore, Kaif reckoned that Rinku Singh would emerge as an all-format player for the Indian team in the future. Notably, Rinku has been performing well in domestic cricket across all formats. 

"Rinku's time will come. Take it from me, he will be an all-format player for India in the future. You will see him playing all formats after two years,” he added.

Speaking about Rinku Singh's numbers, he has played two ODIs, scoring 55 runs while he smacked 550 runs in 35 T20Is at an average of 42.3 with three half-centuries. He was recently part of the India playing XI in the Asia Cup 2025 final against Pakistan, scoring a title-winning shot.

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