It wasn’t the best of conditions for a 10-game experienced newcomer on foreign shores. Menacing clouds hovering with the threat of rain, a bouncy St George’s Park wicket at Gqeberha (earlier known as Port Elizabeth) making it difficult for the batters and the lateral movement contributing to early dismissals inside the Powerplay overs in the second T20I on Tuesday.
But Rinku Singh passed muster with distinction. A career-best unbeaten 68 off 39 balls with a strike rate just a shade under 175 has almost sealed his place in the playing XI in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup in June.
The No. 5 position is tough to bat since it could involve both the roles of a finisher and innings-builder. At 55 for 3, he had to endure some tough calls from a potent South African attack but he showed admirable temperament and shouldered the responsibility when the situation demanded.
Coming in to bat in the sixth over, he had to sort of lay the foundation with Suryakumar Yadav without sacrificing the momentum. Therein lies the lustre of T20 batting and he showed no signs of discomfort and stayed till the end.
The mark of maturity was apparent when he held back his natural instincts against the threatening attack for a while but opened up at the right moment to provide the acceleration.
The hunger to score runs and beat the odds have always been prevalent in Rinku’s rags-to-riches story. Having transformed himself from a promising rookie, Rinku of Kolkata Knight Riders became a household name in IPL 2023 with five sixes in one over in a match-winning cause against Gujarat Titans. Having finished the season with an impressive 474 runs at a strike rate of nearly 150, he showed his character and ability to adapt.
The Aligarh boy had signalled his arrival on the world stage and seems determined to take the next step forward. The Indian middle-order will be choc-a-bloc with the probable return of Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja to the XI.
But Rinku portrays the fearless and expressive brand of the new-age T20 cricket and is not afraid of failure. Success or the lack of it has no bearing on his approach as he just sets about enjoying his time on the field.
He showed this quality during the T20I series against Australia at home. He clinched a last-ball thriller with a six in Visakhapatnam, went about smacking 31 off just nine deliveries in the second T20I and then kept the momentum going with an exciting 46 off 29 balls in Raipur. But the failure in the final T20I in Bangalore couldn’t dampen his spirits.
Being a left-hander, he always enjoys an advantage in lending balance to the line-up. There is a certain consistency in the way he goes about his batting which allows him to deliver even in precarious situations.
The hours spent with Kolkata Knight Riders’ assistant coach Abhishek Nayar at their academy in Mumbai haven’t gone to waste. The short-arm pull which he executed to perfection on the bouncy wicket on Tuesday was a result of his hard work and dedication.
Nayar can demand a lot of credit for Rinku’s transformation since his arrival at KKR after being benched at Kings XI Punjab in 2017. But the former Mumbai batter wishes to stay in the background and puts it down to his ward’s hunger to learn.
“I always plan to bat till the end, like I do in the IPL... The plan is to stay cool and calm, and that’s what I was doing,” Rinku said recently during an interaction with bcci.tv.
His most talked-about strokes on Tuesday were the two consecutive sixes off Aiden Markram’s off-spin in the penultimate over. The last one even damaged the glass pane in the media box but by then he had destroyed the South African attack’s morale.
Rinku has announced his arrival to the world and there’s no way the national selectors can ignore his claims now.
