Ryan Ten Doeschate Issues Big Injury Update On Rinku Singh, Defends Gautam Gambhir’s Tactics

Last Updated:January 30, 2025, 19:55 IST

Ryan ten Doeschate has given a big update on Rinku Singh’s fitness, while also defending his head coach, Gautam Gambhir’s eight-batter tactic.

Rinku Singh was ruled out of the last two games due to a back strain.

Indian men’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate confirmed on Thursday that Rinku Singh will be ‘proper fit’ to play the fourth T20I between India and England in Pune after recovering from back spasms.

The lower-order aggressive batter played the first match in Kolkata but was ruled out of the next two games after picking up the injury before the second. According to news agency PTI, Rinku batted extensively in the nets on the eve of the match, trying audacious laps and sweeps against spinners, looking comfortable against pacers, and also taking throwdowns from specialist Raghavendra and assistant coach Abhishek Nayar.

“Rinku is fit. He played the first game, hurt himself and missed the next two. But I would imagine Rinku comes back in as soon as he’s proper fit. He batted the other night and I think he’ll be ready to go tomorrow,” ten Doeschate said during the pre-match press conference.

The last two T20Is could bring much-needed game time for Rinku who, after a quick start to his international career, hasn’t had clear opportunities to do anything of note in the last few months.

‘Big part of how Gautam Gambhir likes to set-up’: ten Doeschate on India’s batting-heavy lineups

If Rinku comes back, he’ll likely take the place of wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel. Jurel has scores of 4 and 2 in the two T20Is as the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) star’s replacement. However, his second return have been hardly his fault for, despite being more of a top-to-middle-order player, he came to bat at number eight.

It was apparently done to maintain the left-hand-right-hand combination in the middle but led to criticism for Jurel’s inclusion. Many experts felt India could have used his spot for extra bowling cushion. However, if ten Doeschate’s comments are anything to go by, the tactic is here to stay, for now.

“You could argue that we don’t want Dhruv Jurel batting at number 8. But I also think if you look at the blueprint of any of Gambhir’s teams that he has coached since he’s been coaching T20 cricket, it is a big part of how he likes to set up,” ten Doeschate said.

“Particularly the other night, like I said, with Dhruv coming in at 8, I don’t think we got to see the best of him. But we do believe that it’s a big part of strategy in these games. Again, going back to my point, we want to give guys a long enough opportunity to show how good they are because we believe in the medium to long term, guys will show how good they are.”

India lost the third T20I but are ahead by 2-1 in the series.