Rinku Singh: A Wonder boy from KKR

Rinku Singh recently gained popularity among cricket fans after hitting five sixes in a row against the Gujarat Titans in the final over of a thrilling contest between Kolkata Knight Riders and Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2023, while chasing a target of 205. Even after a great innings by Venkatesh Iyer, who played a great knock of 83 runs, they were still lagging behind on the scores, and Rashid Khan’s hattrick shattered all hopes of the KKR winning the match, but Lord Rinku Singh, a wonder boy of the KKR, pulled victory from the jaws of defeat by hitting a marvellous knock that would be remembered for ages. So, who is Rinku Singh? and how he made his spot in the KKR franchise, follow the page.

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Rinku singh’s early life and struggles:

Rinku Singh was born on October 12, 1997, in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, and is the third of his five siblings. His comes from a modest lower middle class family, where his father Khanchandra Singh works in a LPG cylinder distributor company and his elder brother Jeetu Singh drives an auto rickshaw to manage the family’s expenses. He spent his childhood growing up in a two-room house nearby the Aligarh stadium.

Struggles

From his childhood, he had seen the financial struggles of his family, as their family income was not much and the majority of their earnings went into debt payments. They were just somehow meeting their ends. Sometimes he and his elder brother had to deliver the LPG cylinders to complete the daily targets of his father’s work.

Rinku Singh’s father used to punish him if he saw him playing cricket, as he believed that his son must study rather than play sports so that he wouldn’t have to face the challenges his father was facing. But Rinku’s mind, body, and soul got stuck on only one thing: cricket. He was not good in studies and didn’t even complete his secondary, but was awesome at playing cricket. In a recent YouTube video on KKR’s official YouTube channel, he said that “cricket was the only option he ever had to uplift him and his family from poverty.

Seeing his talent, a cricket coach from Aligarh, Masood Amini, offered to coach him, and after that, his batting skills improved, but financial conditions didn’t, as Rinku was only focusing on playing cricket. When things got worse, he even had to work as a sweeper in a coaching centre for some time to have some money, but he left the job later to align his energy in only one direction, i.e., towards playing cricket.

In his difficult times, when he was struggling with finances, his neighbour Mohammad Zeeshan helped him financially to bear the expenses of his cricket kit and much more. He is also grateful to Arjun Singh Fakira, Swapnil Jain, Neel Singh for helping him whenever he needed.

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How had Rinku persuaded his father to let him play?

Rinku Singh’s father never supported him morally in sports, but when Rinku got the chance to prove that he can do something with his life only by playing cricket, he hit the bull’s eye. There was a school world cup happening in his state, which was organised by DPS, Aligarh, and after his exceptional performance in the match, he was rewarded with a moto-bike in front of his father, and after that, his father never stopped him from playing cricket.

Domestic Cricket and Thereafter:

Rinku Singh l

Though he got rejected twice by the UPCA in U16 Uttar Pradesh cricket trials, he humbly admitted the fact that he wasn’t ready for the format at that time; later, in 2012, he hit 154 runs in his Vijay Merchant Trophy debut and showed his calibre. Rinku made his debut in List A cricket at the age of 16 in March 2014 and scored 83 runs, remaining the top scorer in that match. Later, he had his first-class debut in 2016.

In the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy, he played with an average of 105.88, scoring four centuries and three half-centuries in 10 games, which placed him in the top 3 highest scorers list of that year.

Rinku’s selection in the IPL

After playing destructive knocks in domestic cricket, he caught the selector’s eye, and in IPL 2017, he was picked up by King’s XI Punjab for Rs 10 lakh. Unfortunately,  he didn’t get the chance to show his skills in that year’s IPL tournament, but even the selection in such a big franchise boosted his confidence, and he continued performing in domestic cricket. Later in 2018, he was picked up by the Kolkata Knight Riders at four times his base price, for Rs 80 lakhs. Since then, he has been playing for the KKR franchise as a lower middle-order batsman.

Rinku Singh’s IPL Stats:

FormatBatting AverageBowling Average Matches played
T20s25.8838.0077
Personal and Social Life:

Rinku Singh hasn’t married yet and is quite active on social media, and after his magical innings against the Gujarat Titans, social media users gave him a nick name (Lord Rinku Singh), and stars from both the cricket and Bollywood communities appraised his talent.

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