Rinku Singh (cricketer) - KALYANINSTITUTE

Rinku Singh is an Indian cricketer who currently plays for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League and for Uttar Pradesh in domestic cricket. He is a left-handed top-order batsman and a right-arm off-spinner. He is best known for his innings on April 9, 2023, where he hit five consecutive sixes in the last five balls of the last over of the match to help his franchise, the Kolkata Knight Riders, defeat the Gujarat Titans.

Full name: Rinku Khanchand Singh

Born on October 12, 1997 (age 25)

Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

Early life

Rinku Singh Jadaun, the third of five siblings, was born into a working-class family to Khanchandra Singh, who worked in an LPG distribution company. He spent his formative years in two-room quarters provided by his father’s employers, near Aligarh Stadium in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. During his early years, he considered getting a job as a sweeper to help his financially strapped family before running away to pursue a career in cricket.

Rinku Singh with Bollywood actor & KKR owner Shah Rukh Khan

Domestic career

He represented Uttar Pradesh at the Under-16, Under-19, and Under-23 levels and the Central Zone at the Under-19 level. He made his List A debut for Uttar Pradesh in March 2014 at the age of 16 and scored 83 runs in that match. He made his first-class debut for Uttar Pradesh in the 2016–17 Ranji Trophy on November 5, 2016.

He was the highest run-scorer for Uttar Pradesh in the group stage of the 2018–19 Ranji Trophy with 803 runs in nine matches. He finished the tournament with 953 runs in ten matches.

Indian Premier League

In February 2017, he was bought by the Kings XI Punjab team for the 2017 Indian Premier League. In January 2018, he was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2018 IPL auction for a price of Rs 80 lakh.

Rinku was ruled out of the 2021 Indian Premier League due to a knee injury and was later replaced by Gurkeerat Singh Mann. In February 2022, he was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders in the auction for the 2022 Indian Premier League tournament. In this year’s tournament match, he received his first Man of the Match award against Rajasthan Royals for his 42 off 23 balls with a strike rate of 182.61 and a check of Rs. 1 lakh.

On April 9, 2023, Rinku achieved a record-breaking feat in an IPL match against Mota Bhai’s Gujarat Titans, successfully chasing 29 runs by hitting five sixes in the last over—the highest chase in the last over in the tournament’s history.

Rinku Singh’s journey was full of difficulties.

Rinku Singh hails from Aligarh and has been a part of KKR for almost five years. The 25-year-old was often called a brilliant fielder and a young talent. But it was left for the world to know that this youngster is also a brilliant batsman. He has shown the same in this match against the Gujarat Titans. But these are his days of success; meanwhile, the world is now getting to know about his poor life. Rinku belonged to a very poor family. He never had the money to buy even a meagre five rupee ball.

His father was a gas cylinder vendor. He has four more brothers. Some used to drive autos, and some used to work as labourers. Bread for two meals could also be made in Rinku’s house with great effort. Rinku was the youngest in the family; his father used to get angry at his playing cricket, but whom would he listen to? As if from childhood, his mind was made like this by God. Then slowly, time passed, and Rinku also became wiser. He too had to make ends meet, so he started looking for work. He used to mop in a coaching centre. The passion for cricket had been in his mind since childhood. Suddenly, Rinku left the job and made up his mind to move towards cricket. He had realised that only cricket could take away the sorrows of his family.

Three turning points in Rinku’s life

God is not himself in this world, but if he has to make someone, then he definitely comes in some form or another and gets made. The same happened in Rinku’s life. Three people made a huge contribution to changing Rinku’s life. Rinku Singh was determined to make his future in cricket. All his brothers used to support him. Meanwhile, he got out twice in the first round of the under-16 trials. This is because they were not getting proper training. In such a situation, Mohammad Zeeshan of Aligarh came forward to help him. After this, Rinku Singh started getting coaching from Masood Amin of Aligarh in the initial days.

Masood is still his coach. While the help and guidance Rinku Singh received from Mohammad Zeeshan played an important role in her life, she then entered domestic cricket. He played Ranji in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Due to this, his economic condition improved. He got the house built and started doing everything in debt. After all this, in 2018, when Shahrukh Khan showed faith in him for his franchise, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), his fortunes changed. Now this star has shone so brightly that even Rashid Khan’s hat-trick pales in comparison to his brilliance. That’s why today every fan of the cricket world is congratulating this star from the heart, and knowing this journey of his life, more blessings are coming out of everyone’s mind for him.

Rinku Singh in the IPL

One of the amazing young Indian players supported by the Kolkata Knight Riders was Rinku. In addition to Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi, Rinku was another “slightly unknown buy” for KKR. This came after the young player’s services for the 2017 IPL had been acquired by KXIP for his base salary of Rs. 10 lakhs.

However, in 2018, at the auction table, Rinku’s stocks continued to rise, and he brought in four times the amount of his base cap of Rs. 20 lakhs to be purchased by KKR at Rs. 80 lakhs. He only managed to score 29 runs in the four games he participated in because his opportunities were few and far between. However, KKR made the decision to continue using the dangerous middle-order bat.

Rinku Singh was given a longer run finally in IPL 2022, where he was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs. 55 lakh. In the 2022 season, Rinku scored 172 runs and almost pulled off an impossible victory with a 15-ball, 40-run knock. In that game, KKR lost to the Lucknow Super Giants by just 2 runs, despite Rinku’s heroics.

(Note: All this information is based on information received from different reports and some old interviews with Rinku Singh.)

ARTICLE BY : KALYAN SINGH

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