India, June 9 -- The announcement barely made headlines. Buried beneath the noise of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's much-anticipated selection, Shreyas Iyer's elevation to the captaincy and Suryakumar Yadav's omission was another, quieter development - Rinku Singh, part of India's T20 World Cup-winning squad just months ago, had been left out of the next cycle of T20I assignments.

Rinku wasn't rested. He wasn't dropped because of poor form either. His omission appeared to be a consequence of circumstance - squeezed out by a batting order that simply no longer had room for him.

An extraordinary IPL 2026 season left the selection committee with little choice as questions of whether it was too early for Sooryavanshi took a backseat. Chief selector...