It is good to be sceptical of young players, but ...

[BacktoCricaddict]

There are a couple of us on this board who are sceptical of young players being selected at the expense of guys like Sharma, Kohli etc. It is an understandable scepticism and must especially be applied to guys who may get selected after putting together a very short resume, and don't seem ready for the big moment or simply fizzle out.  I am thinking of guys like Shivam Dube in his first iteration, Venkatesh Iyer etc. But not all newcomers should be viewed as sceptically, and the scepticism should be applied on a case-by-case basis.  Let's take the case of someone like Rinku Singh. This guy has performed over multiple years and multiple formats.

 

Two excellent IPL seasons as a finisher. An excellent domestic FC record (high avg at a dominant SR). An excellent List A record. In LOIs, he usually comes in late, is tasked with tonking the ball around in high-risk mode.  And more often than not, he has succeeded.  It is harsh to suggest that he has only done it against Yash Dayal.  He may not have hit every bowler for 30 runs (but then nor has Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma), but has dominated a variety of bowlers. 

 

Consistent domestic performances in all formats suggests that he is not a hack and has the ability to give solidity when needed. You may argue that domestic attacks are full of pie-chuckers, but that is not something he can control.  Whenever he has had a chance to showcase his skills, he has done it with flying colors.  How else do you select someone, especially for LOIs?  It's not like there are A-matches for LOIs.  Whom did Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma dominate before they entered the Indian team at the age of 19 and 21?  McGrath?  Ambrose?  Anderson?  They dominated whoever was bowling to them and were picked on that basis.  Going by y'all's logic, we should still be playing Gavaskar and Srikkanth with Sandeep Patil as our finisher. 

 

Will Rinku Singh turn into a superstar and play for India for many years at a high level?  No one knows.  Did he deserve a debut for the role of finisher at this time?  Absolutely yes.  Did he show that he is capable of doing the job. Certainly.  So, let's celebrate his performance, enjoy the win in which he played a crucial role, drop the cynical approach and, for the good of Indian cricket, hope that guys like him, Gill, Jaiswal, Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, and Tilak Varma are all ones for the future.

 

/rant   

[vvvslaxman]

Scepticisim should be based on limitations as a player rather than output. If a player comes in and struggles without even being able to put bat to ball while lacing boundaries in domestic then that is something we should call out.  None of the players looked out of place there except Dube in the sense he mistimed almost all the balls. He was out of position while executing shots. He got a couple of freebies which he put away to his credit.  Rinku singh was expected to be calculative at the start then finish well. He did that in  IPL. So there is no real drop in his quality even in his first innings as a batsman. 

[BacktoCricaddict]

2 hours ago, vvvslaxman said:

Scepticisim should be based on limitations as a player rather than output. If a player comes in and struggles without even being able to put bat to ball while lacing boundaries in domestic then that is something we should call out.  None of the players looked out of place there except Dube in the sense he mistimed almost all the balls. He was out of position while executing shots. He got a couple of freebies which he put away to his credit.  Rinku singh was expected to be calculative at the start then finish well. He did that in  IPL. So there is no real drop in his quality even in his first innings as a batsman. 

To begin with.  However, mid-career and late-career players should be judged on output. 

[singhvivek141]

8 hours ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

There are a couple of us on this board who are sceptical of young players being selected at the expense of guys like Sharma, Kohli etc. It is an understandable scepticism and must especially be applied to guys who may get selected after putting together a very short resume, and don't seem ready for the big moment or simply fizzle out.  I am thinking of guys like Shivam Dube in his first iteration, Venkatesh Iyer etc. But not all newcomers should be viewed as sceptically, and the scepticism should be applied on a case-by-case basis.  Let's take the case of someone like Rinku Singh. This guy has performed over multiple years and multiple formats.

 

Two excellent IPL seasons as a finisher. An excellent domestic FC record (high avg at a dominant SR). An excellent List A record. In LOIs, he usually comes in late, is tasked with tonking the ball around in high-risk mode.  And more often than not, he has succeeded.  It is harsh to suggest that he has only done it against Yash Dayal.  He may not have hit every bowler for 30 runs (but then nor has Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma), but has dominated a variety of bowlers. 

 

Consistent domestic performances in all formats suggests that he is not a hack and has the ability to give solidity when needed. You may argue that domestic attacks are full of pie-chuckers, but that is not something he can control.  Whenever he has had a chance to showcase his skills, he has done it with flying colors.  How else do you select someone, especially for LOIs?  It's not like there are A-matches for LOIs.  Whom did Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma dominate before they entered the Indian team at the age of 19 and 21?  McGrath?  Ambrose?  Anderson?  They dominated whoever was bowling to them and were picked on that basis.  Going by y'all's logic, we should still be playing Gavaskar and Srikkanth with Sandeep Patil as our finisher. 

 

Will Rinku Singh turn into a superstar and play for India for many years at a high level?  No one knows.  Did he deserve a debut for the role of finisher at this time?  Absolutely yes.  Did he show that he is capable of doing the job. Certainly.  So, let's celebrate his performance, enjoy the win in which he played a crucial role, drop the cynical approach and, for the good of Indian cricket, hope that guys like him, Gill, Jaiswal, Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, and Tilak Varma are all ones for the future.

 

/rant   

In the era where everything from food to sweets come with a ready made box. People usually have very little patience and that translates to their treatment with youngsters. As soon as a Tilak Varma fails in 2 inns..question is started to raised on his temperament, technique etc, while when a Rohit or Virat or Rahane sucks for years, their past achievements are glorified to justify the inclusion.

 

Ok, yes, understandable that these guys have a glorious past (atleast Virat and Rohit does have), but we also need to remind us that Virat debuted in 2008 and til 2012 he was never seen as a main threat until that knock against SL...and we all know about Rohit's struggles anyway until he hit jackpot in 2012 while opening. 

 

One more thing which is a concern these days, was during the time of Virat and Rohit's younger days, they had seniors who were able to manage their failures and somewhat camouflage them. That's because they all were in late 20's to early 30's (except Sachin) and hence were in their prime years. However, now the likes of Rohit and to some extent Virat as well has question marks on their performance during big matches, hence the failures of youngsters are blown out of proportion by the fan army.

 

Pant was criticised a lot for the reckless shot of 2019 WC, but not many questions were raised on failures of Rohit, KL, Virat, DK, MSD..and who can forget the chants of MSD after Pant made a mistake in keeping..I mean nothing can be more demoralising for a youngster who was trying to find his feet.

 

 

Edited August 21, 2023 by singhvivek141

[BacktoCricaddict]

As the article below describes, there's much more to Rinku Singh's batting abilities than the Yash Dayal over. It is a pity that it took something dramatic like that for people to stand up and take notice, considering that he has been lighting it up in all formats in top-level domestics for several years now.  Some of us here (e.g., @Lord ) recognized his value in IPL 2022 itself when he took Kolkata to the brink of an impossible win against LSG by going bang bang against Holder and Stoinis (both decent bowlers), but was done in by the most brilliant catch ever (taken by Evin Lewis). The stage, the stakes, under which he nearly pulled it off should've made him a contender right then, but had to keep proving himself. Which he did. Better late than never. 

 

Quote

 

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/india-in-ireland-rinku-singh-is-not-just-an-ipl-star-and-he-is-more-than-those-five-sixes-1393673

Rinku Singh isn't just an IPL star, and he is more than those five sixes

In the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy season, for example, Rinku was the second-highest run-scorer in the Elite division. He scored 953 runs in 13 innings at an astounding average of 105.88. This included four centuries and three half-centuries. At the List A Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2021-22, Rinku single-handedly steered Uttar Pradesh into the knockouts, notching up 379 runs in six innings, including four half-centuries and a century, at a strike rate of 94.75.

These underline his all-format stature and how it isn't just that one innings that propelled him to the national team. What it did give him, though, was visibility, which his toil and all the runs at the domestic level didn't. It makes a massive difference, and Rinku knows all about it.

 

 

 

[Lord]

27 minutes ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

As the article below describes, there's much more to Rinku Singh's batting abilities than the Yash Dayal over. It is a pity that it took something dramatic like that for people to stand up and take notice, considering that he has been lighting it up in all formats in top-level domestics for several years now.  Some of us here (e.g., @Lord ) recognized his value in IPL 2022 itself when he took Kolkata to the brink of an impossible win against LSG by going bang bang against Holder and Stoinis (both decent bowlers), but was done in by the most brilliant catch ever (taken by Evin Lewis). The stage, the stakes, under which he nearly pulled it off should've made him a contender right then, but had to keep proving himself. Which he did. Better late than never. 

 

 

 

 

Also he's an all format player. Averages high in FC too.

 

He's still not in the first XI though, should be there soon