Rinku Singh

It was around a decade ago that Rinku Singh started playing cricket – a sport that's loved the most in our country. In 2013, Rinku Singh was selected in UP's under-16 team and a couple of years later he was also picked up in UP's under-19 team for his talent as an aggressive batsman. Known to be a hard hitter of the cricket ball, the southpaw notched up a swashbuckling 31-ball 95 in one of the games in a camp held by Mumbai Indians in the same year. Coming from a humble background, things haven't come trouble-free for this left-handed batsman. Son of a LPG delivery man and brother of an auto-rickshaw driver, Rinku Singh has had to struggle quite a bit in his young days to make it to this stage.

Another notable performance by Rinku Singh in recent times came during Uttar Pradesh's Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018 encounter where he played a sweltering knock of 44-ball 91* against Tripura. With a lot of local Indian talent around and availability of some world class foreign cricketers in KKR camp, Rinku Singh would look to make the most of this experience and would definitely get to learn a lot in the presence of these players.

IPL through the years

Rinku was one of those incredible young Indian talent to be backed by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Along with Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Rinku was another 'slightly unknown buy' for KKR. This after KXIP had purchased the youngster's services for the 2017 IPL for his base price of Rs.10 lakhs.

But at the auction table in 2018, Rinku's stocks kept getting higher and he fetched four times his base cap of Rs. 20 lakhs to be bagged by KKR at Rs. 80 lakhs. But his chances were few and far in between and he ended up scoring only 29 runs from the 4 games he played. But KKR decided to retain the services of the destructive middle-order bat.

The left-handed batter was given a longer run by KKR in 2022 as compared to the previous seasons, and Rinku made the most of the given chances. He scored 172 runs at a decent average of 174 and almost pulled off a spectacular run chase against Lucknow Super Giants with a fantastic 15-ball 40. The Knight Riders lost by 2 runs, but Rinku's knock was indeed a memorable one.

Rinku really came into his own in the 2023 season. He took the burden off Andre Russell for becoming KKR’s designated finisher. Rinku’s finest hour came in a league game against Gujarat Titans where he hit Yash Dayal for five consecutive sixes in the final over of a game to win KKR an improbable game. The southpaw repeated these kinds of heroics against PBKS and CSK.

Rinku’s finishing exploits caught the eye of the BCCI selectors who picked him for the away T20I series to Ireland. He has played some handy knocks for India are well in the few opportunities presented so far, and looks like a reliable batter to have in that middle order.