India vs Ireland: Will Rinku Singh make his India debut in 1st T20I?

India are set to take on Ireland in the first T20I of the 3-match series at The Village in Dublin on Friday. A second-string Indian squad has travelled to Ireland under the leadership of Jasprit Bumrah.

However, the series is not all that irrelevant. It is set to witness the return of Jasprit Bumrah after a gap of almost one year. Prasidh Krishna is also making a comeback after a long injury layoff.

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The fitness of these two pacers will be closely monitored in the lead up to the Asia Cup 2023 and World Cup 2023. A successful comeback of these two fast bowlers will solve one of India's two big problems.

This is not it. Eyes will also be on Rinku Singh. The 25-year-old from Aligarh is set to make his India debut. His international debut is a much-anticipated one, especially after his exploits in the IPL 2023 which saw him score 474 runs in 14 matches at an average of 59.25 and a strike-rate of 149.52.

BCCI and the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel were slammed after the southpaw was ignored for the white-ball series against West Indies. However, as promised the selectors first named Rinku Singh in the India squad for the Asian Games, before inducting him in India's T20I squad for the Ireland squad.

Will Rinku Singh make his T20I debut on Friday?

Yes, the chances of the Aligarh-born cricketer making his India debut is really high. He is expected to get a lot in the middle-order alongside Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube and Tilak Varma.

India have four specialist batters - Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma and Rinku Singh, there all-rounder - Washington Sundar, Dube and Shahbaz Ahmed, and two wicketkeeper-batters in Samson and Jitesh Sharma.

Gaikwad and Yashasvi are certain to open and would be followed by Samson, Dube, Rinku, Tilak and Washington Sundar. Rinku Singh has also spent a long time batting in the nets after arriving in Ireland and that too hints towards his possible India debut during the first T20I.