Former Indian batter Ajinkya Rahane reckons the omission of Kuldeep Yadav and Rinku Singh won’t affect the performance of the team in the T20I series against Afghanistan. Yadav wasn’t in the best of forms in the Test series against Sri Lanka, taking a solitary wicket in the opening Test.

However, the wrist spinner returned with impressive figures of 10-120 in the County Championship while playing for Yorkshire. 

On the other hand, Rinku Singh was part of the last T20I series against Zimbabwe but was not picked for the Afghanistan series. Singh scored 37 runs in two innings at an average of 18.50 and a strike rate of 168.18 against Zimbabwe.

Singh has scored 702 runs in 35 T20I innings at an average of 36.95 and he scored 80 runs in the Duleep Trophy match.

“I don’t think the exclusion of one or two players (Rinku and Kuldeep) will affect the performance of the team. Personally, I want Rinku to get a chance, as he has shown consistency in the IPL and even in the UPT20 league. He has shown it in his batting and has contributed whenever he got the opportunity. We must remember that his contributions have come at numbers five, six, or seven, and these are very difficult numbers for a batter in T20. I do want to see him and Kuldeep back. But it will not affect the team’s performance, as all players are equally equipped skill-wise,” Ajinkya Rahane said in a video on his Hindi YouTube channel.

Rahane predicted that India will win the T20I series against Afghanistan.

“I feel the Indian team will win the series. It is difficult for Afghanistan, or any other team, when they are playing India in India. The team has gone through and followed the process to get to the stage they are at. The system and BCCI also have to be credited. Afghanistan will fight, but you cannot keep India behind in this format at the moment,” he said.

India are chasing 157 runs in the first T20I against Afghanistan.